Federation

Question 1

What are 2 reasons for Federation

Answer 1

1. The defence would be stronger, Australia wouldn’t have to rely on England for defence forces, and there were threats of Germany and France invading, so Australia needed its own defence force.
2. There would be free trade where everyone can trade freely into the other colonies and not get taxed.

Question 2

What are 2 reasons against Federation?

Answer 2

1. QLD cane farmers didn’t want to federate because QLD cane farmers were using Pacific Islanders for cheap labour. Federation would stop this and we wanted to be a white Australia so we only wanted Aussie’s to have the jobs.
2. There would be a power imbalance, the smaller colonies had a concern that the bigger colonies would be more powerful, e.g. NSW, VIC.