Hundreds of officials including Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Speaker Bronwyn Bishop attended a gathering at the Great Hall in Parliament House to celebrate one of the most important legal documents in history.
The Magna Carta – meaning Grand Charter in Latin - was written to address the rights of barons and limit the power of the king in medieval England, stating that no one was above the law.
King John of England sealed the original document at Runneymede in 1215.
Only eight weeks later it was repudiated but revived as a symbol of the rule of law after the king died.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the document was “the most important constitutional document of all time that has shaped our history and so much of the modern world."
There are only four copies of the original 1215 Magna Carta – two are the British Library, one at Salisbury Cathedral and one at Lincoln Cathedral.
Australia owns one of four surviving originals of the amended 1297 version.
For the first time in 50 years, the manuscript has been taken out of its glass casing for public display in Parliament House.
The 1952 acquisition of Australia's copy of the Magna Carta was shrouded in controversy at the time.
Then Prime Minister Robert Menzies offered the full asking price of £12,500, outbidding the British Museum’s offer of £2,000.
The decision generated some criticism as not everyone thought spending that much on a piece of old parchment was a good investment.
Mr Abbott suggested it was Menzies' own “Blue Poles moment," likening it to Gough Whitlam's purchase of the 1952 Jackson Pollock painting for $1.3 million in 1973.
Long-serving Labor MP Clyde Cameron, who was a minister in the Whitlam government, believed the money could have been better spent sending a copy of Magna Carta to every school child in the Commonwealth.
Speaker Bronwyn Bishop said the greatest principle of the Magna Carta was that “even the mightest would be subject to the law.”
She emphasised that the document was still relevant today, particularly in shaping our “strong independent nation which values its roots.”
Senior historian Libby Stewart from the Museum of Australian Democracy said the great charter formed the bedrock of Australian’s democracy.
"I always say Australia wouldn't be the democracy it is today without Magna Carta. Our laws came to us from Britain in 1788 and of course British laws heavily influence by Magna Carta over the years," she said.
It has also been influential throughout the rest of the world.
“Americans have been very taken with Magna Carta for a very long time,” Ms Stewart said. “It was cited in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948, by Nelson Mandela in his trial in 1964 as well as by Ghandi.”
Students from Boggabri Public School received a rectangular-shaped $5 dollar commemorative coin from the Royal Australian Mint after travelling more than 700km to attend the ceremony on Monday.
"We do give Australia's schoolchildren - and indeed our future leaders - a chance to savour this document and this moment in history," Mr Abbott said.
- with AAP
