The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade [DFAT] has a database of the treaties Australia is signatory to, or has taken treaty action on.

DFAT describes a treaty as;

A treaty is an agreement between States (countries) which is binding at international law. In some cases international organisations can be parties to treaties. A treaty may also be called a 'treaty', 'convention', 'protocol', 'covenant' or 'exchange of letters'.

An agreement between an Australian State or Territory and a foreign Government will not, therefore, be a treaty. Even if a document is agreed between two or more sovereign countries, it will not be a treaty unless those countries intend the document to be binding at international law.

The history of the treaty in Australia is an interesting one. The DFAT website links to a parliamentary paper titled, Federal Parliament's Changing Role in Treaty Making and External Affairs. Australia has modified its practices on treaties, such as being capable of being an independent signatory as well as the parliamentary (legislative) oversight of treaties. These changes have been won by the work of parliamentarians seeking an improved form of check and balance on the executive as well as independent treaty making ability for Australia.

Current separation of powers theory and checks and balances practices place treaty making capability in the hands of the executive with ratification being dependent on the legislative agreeing to it. This is another argument for the current Australian parliamentary system to prohibit Senators from participating in the Executive Cabinet or unter-executive secretary roles.

The reason that Treaties need to be ratified by Parliament is that they can act as a means for the executive to make laws, or enter into laws, which can subvert the legislative's monopoly on that area. Since treaties can become binding on the nation-state's laws and execution of those laws, it is important for the legislative to agree to the treaty.

The Database

If you choose "All Treaties in Force" the search returns 1852 treaties! According to the database there are 1438 treaties which are no longer in force, and 66 treaties not yet in force.

One of the ones not yet in force dates back to 1975 between Australia and India. Agreement between Australia and India on Co-operation in the Fields of Science and Technology. It appears it was entered into in 1975 and then terminated in 1986 even though the status says not yet in force. Wonder what the history behind that is.

Others include a treaty to end double-taxation between Norway and Australia, the well-known Kyoto Protocol, and one with the PRC for the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

The database doesn't contain the text for the treaties; just their name, status, date of ratification and termination.

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