CCF – The Parliament

A speech by the Hon Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of Australia at Anglo Australian Lawyers Association on Wednesday 12 July 2017 in London.

Crikey. Section 44i might take out another two Ministers. On Monday Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce got up in parliament and announced that he was possibly a New Zealand citizen.

This week Greens Leader Richard Di Natale announced that the Greens Party would table, debate and vote on Charter of Rights legislation in the 45th Parliament.

On Sunday (9 July) we will celebrate Constitution Day. It will be 117 years since the Queen assented the Australian Constitution into law in the UK.

Three Ministers in the Federal Government recently criticised the Victorian judiciary regarding an appeal that had yet to be decided by the Court.

On Wednesday this week, Deputy National Party Leader Fiona Nash announced that all Cabinet Ministers will be required to find parts of their Canberra based departments that can be moved out to the regions.

Lately we’ve noticed the term ‘the rule of law’ being thrown around a lot. Most of the time the emphasis seems to be about ‘law and order’. It can be confusing as there are elements of law and order within the rule of law, under our Constitutional arrangements.

Most of us would think that our country is called ‘Australia’. Although, with our penchant for shortening words, these days you often hear us being called ‘Straya’. But if you flip open a copy of our Constitution you’ll notice that our official country name is the ‘Commonwealth of Australia’.

On Friday 27 January, President Trump signed Executive Order 13769 which is titled ‘Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States’. This Executive Order restricted people from seven countries from entering the United States.

X

Subscribe and stay up to date with CEFA's Constitutional Forum