Current Issues in Australian Constitutional Law

Published in 2022 by Connor Court Publishing Pty Ltd under the imprint Shepherd Street Press. Shepherd Street Press is an imprint of Connor Court Publishing and The School of Law, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Broadway. Contributions from: Thomas Boyle, Michael Dimarco, Lorraine Finlay, Anthony Gray, Gabriël A. Moens AM, A. Keith Thompson, and Augusto Zimmermann. The Covid pandemic has reminded Australians that the federal government is not the only government in Australia. How should and do the state and federal governments share power, respond to civil emergencies, and how should the High Court resolve their differences when they disagree? Do or should we have freedom of speech in Australia or can our state and federal governments control what we say anytime they deem such interference reasonable? Though our constitutional framers thought our 19th century common law rights and the integrity of our elected representatives would protect us from executive overreach, modern practice suggests there is no constitutional protection when either level of government legislates 'too far'. And how can we resurrect the dignity of our First Peoples whom our forebears taught us to suppress with their 'White Australia Policy'? Is there no other way to join them into our modern community without almost impossible constitutional amendments? This volume in the Shepherd Street Press series grapples with all of these questions - and suggests innovative and even provocative answers to some.