There is a view that a preamble should be written at the time a document is made, not a century later. No one would be taken seriously if they were to suggest that the Magna Carta of the US Constitution should have a new preamble.

In addition, we do not know how any new preamble will be interpreted by the courts. The Constitution Act 1900, given legal force by the British Parliament, already contains a preamble which was approved by the people before Federation. This accurately which reflects the principles upon which the Federation was agreed to be made.

It recites the fact that the people of the several states, “humbly relying on the blessing of Almighty God,” had “agreed to unite in one indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Crown... and under the Constitution...” That summarises what we are – an indissoluble Federal Commonwealth under the Australian Crown and under the Constitution.

(It is relevant to note that the reference to the Crown there was to the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It has been superseded by the constitutional emergence of a separate Australian Crown.)