Parliamentary Research Brief – Voice Referendum Question May be Constitutionally Invalid For Misleading And Misinforming Voters

The Institute of Public Affairs recently received legal advice from leading Victorian barrister and constitutional law expert Mr Stuart Wood KC about the lawfulness of the proposed referendum question to insert into the Australian Constitution an ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice’. The federal government has proposed the following referendum question for voters to answer: Read More …

THE INTERPRETERS OF THE CONSTITUTION

Page 791 Annotated Constitution of the Commonwealth. THE INTERPRETERS OF THE CONSTITUTION.—The Constitution, like every other law, is directly binding on every individual and every governmental agency within the Commonwealth. Every person, every officer, every political organ, has the duty of complying with its provisions and must in the exercise of that duty interpret its provisions, in the Read More …

THE VOICE, Yes or No?

Statement of the proposed changes to be made to the Constitution The proposed law, being the Constitution Alteration (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice) 2023, would change the Constitution by inserting the following text after Chapter VIII: Chapter IX—Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 129 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice In recognition Read More …

THE PATH TO INDEPENDENCE: AUSTRALIA’S CONSTITUTION AND HER BRITISH TIES

The Australian Constitution created the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. It was written ‘at a time of ambivalence about Australia’s place in the world, whether it was an independent country or a child of England. Whilst the framers were seeking greater independence from Britain, the Constitution, which itself formed part of an Act Read More …