Immediately after John Kerr had sacked the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam returned to the Lodge, set the table and sat down to eat steaks. As they ate, he and his closest colleagues thrashed… Continue reading
One thing that struck me recently when I was re-reading Fred Daly’s memoirs From Curtin to Kerr (1977) was his view that the Senate was essentially irrelevant to day to day Australian politics. … Continue reading
Are the Australian systems of government, at state and federal levels, “parliamentary”? Most scholars certainly think so, but there have long been disagreeing voices. A parliamentary system of government requires that the legislature… Continue reading
The creation of citizenship registers in Parliament appeared to be the end of the dual citizenship saga. But, the last few weeks, with a new case of dual citizenship in the Federal Parliament,… Continue reading
We care about public opinion and policy congruency for normative and practical reasons. For reasons of values, if nothing else, some form of policy representation is necessary for democratic government. However, this link… Continue reading
In 2006, four women senators from different parties made history when they worked together across party lines to overturn the ministerial veto on medical abortion drug RU486. What led these women to collaborate… Continue reading
Young people are increasingly becoming disinterested and disengaged with mainstream electoral politics. While this trend cannot yet be classified as long term, it raises an interesting point of why young people are turning… Continue reading
Prior to the 2016 federal election held on 2 July, the Coalition demonstrated a rare degree of collaboration with the Greens and passed changes to reform the electoral process for the Senate. This… Continue reading
Perhaps there is no term more misused and abused in Australian politics than ‘mandate’. When in government both the Coalition and the Labor Party insist that they have a mandate ‘from the people’,… Continue reading
