Australian constitutional law

There will be a brief moment of bad headlines for the government that will soon fade away. But the underlying dynamics don’t change: the slow bleeding of the government’s authority.

While the houses are under a moral and political obligation to obey the Constitution, this is difficult when the Constitution itself is unclear and its interpretation is disputed.

A minority government would not mean the government would fall – but it would make governing more difficult, says Anne Twomey.

Section 44 of the Constitution has struck down many a politician in the past year – but is it powerful enough to take down the Liberal leadership challenger Peter Dutton?

In the final piece of a three-part series exploring the idea of replacing the Australian Constitution, Scott Lambert presents his proposed version. “The promotion of the idea requires no outlandish claims or hyperbole,” he writes.

The first a new opinion series on re-imagining the Australian Constitution. In light of the recent upending of political precepts around the world, can we really be so sure wholesale reform is beyond the limits of what the Australian electorate will support?

The government’s federalism white paper process has been “inconsistent” and “opaque”, top legal expert Cheryl Saunders said at Tuesday’s John Button Oration. Although Australians are obsessed with ending vertical fiscal imbalance, maybe it’s not even necessary.