 The global nature of the war meant that many functions that were previously vested in the individual Australian state governments had to be placed under the control of the Commonwealth government . Additionally , the exigencies of the war meant that the government required the power to enact certain laws that under the Constitution it would not normally be able to do . In order to enable this to occur , the War Precautions Act 1914 was introduced in October 1914 , providing the Commonwealth government with wide ranging powers for a period of up to six months after the duration of the war . 
