一、宪法依据始自一九○一年,澳大利亚一直是一个联邦国家。各地方政府,即各个州享有充分的公司立法权。联邦政府,即澳大利亚联邦,仅在宪法上对公司享有有限的立法权。在十九世纪,各个彼此分离的殖民地(以后成为联邦各州),以英格兰的公司立法(主要是英国《一八六二年公司法》)为范本,分别制定了公司法。各州公司立法最终在某些重要方面产生了分歧。五十年代末期,一场统一各州立法的运动发展起来,随继通过了统一的立法。然而,有些州后来又背离了这一统一的思想。随后在一九七二至一九七五年这个时期,联邦政府(由具有中央集权趋势的工党掌权)准备以联邦公司立法来代替各州公司立法。该项立法未能在工党下台前得到通过。继位的保守党联邦政府在联邦 First, the constitutional basis Starting in 1901, Australia has always been a federal country. Each local government, that is, each state enjoys full legislative power. The federal government, the Commonwealth of Australia, has only constitutionally limited legislative power over the company. In the nineteenth century, various separate colonies (which later became federal states) enacted corporate laws respectively based on corporate legislation in England (principally the “Corporations Act 1862”). State company legislations eventually diverged in some important ways. In the late fifties, a movement to unify state legislatures developed and subsequently passed uniform legislation. However, some states later departed from this unified thought. Then in the period from 1972 to 1975, the federal government, which was dominated by the Labor party with a tendency to centralization, was prepared to replace federal state company legislation with federal company legislation. The legislation failed to be passed before the Labor Party stepped down. The Conservative federal government is in the Federation