Welcome to the April edition of the AUSPUBLAW Australian Public Law Events Roundup.

Alan Zheng

Note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains the names of people who have passed away.

Over the past decade, the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (RDA) has found its place as a remedial avenue for First Nations persons and communities seeking justice against unlawful racial discrimination.

Welcome to the March edition of the AUSPUBLAW Australian Public Law Events Roundup.

Samuel White

In January 2020, the Prime Minister of Australia announced that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) would move from ‘respond to request’ to ‘move forward and integrate’, signalling increased domestic deployments in response to the devastating bushfires over the summer of 2019/2020. Two months later, Operation COVID-19 Assist was established and constituted the largest deployment – domestic or external - of the ADF since World War Two.

Dane Luo

Last month, the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) published the Australian Choice Model – a model for a Australian republic where the Head of State would be elected by the Australian people every five years from a pool of candidates nominated by the Commonwealth, state and territory Parliaments.

William Isdale and Nicholas Simoes da Silva

Last year marked the 120th anniversary of the Commonwealth statute book – an anniversary that offers an opportunity to reflect on the house of law we have built. There is much to be proud of: a house constructed from the timbers of Parliamentary sovereignty, with strong constitutional foundations.

Paul Kildea

On 20 December 2021, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs completed its inquiry into constitutional reform and referendums and published an anticipated Report. The Report makes 10 recommendations …

Gabrielle Appleby, Lynsey Blayden, Chantal Bostock & Janina Boughey

In the final post for the Kerr Report series, which examines whether Australian administrative law is still fit for purpose 50 years after the Kerr Committee Report, we reflect on a number of key reforms required to ensure the performance and integrity of Australia’s administrative review system. …

Guy Baldwin

Since the shift in focus for supporting Commonwealth migration legislation from the ‘immigration’ power under s 51(xxvii) of the Constitution to the ‘aliens’ power under s 51(xix) in the 1980s, there has been a great deal of litigation before the High Court about the scope of s 51(xix). Perhaps the most influential judicial dicta …

Lucas Lixinski

In mid-October 2021, the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia delivered ‘A Way Forward: Final report into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge’ (‘A Way Forward’, or ‘Report’). This Report makes recommendations to change Australian law to better safeguard First Nations identities and …

Hannah McGlade

The Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia’s Inquiry into the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge reported in October. Its report, ‘A Way Forward’ called for a new national framework of Aboriginal heritage protection co-designed with Aboriginal people. It recommended that the responsibility for Aboriginal cultural heritage, sitting …

Georgie Clough

On 21 April 2021, the Commonwealth Minister for Foreign Affairs (the Minister) announced the cancellation of two memoranda of understanding between the Victorian state government and the Chinese government with respect to the latter’s Belt and Road Initiative (the Belt and Road agreements). The power to cancel the agreements …

Jonathan Bonnitcha

The High Court’s decisions in Mineralogy v WA and Palmer v WA end the dispute between Mineralogy/Clive Palmer and the Western Australian government as a matter of Australian law. It is not, however, the end of the dispute. A Singaporean-incorporated entity in Palmer’s corporate group is now poised to commence international arbitration. …

Anne Twomey

One of the difficulties in understanding and applying manner and form constraints on state legislative power is that there is little jurisprudence on the subject and what exists is often unclear, poorly reasoned and in some cases just wrong. That is why the manner and form arguments in Mineralogy …

Paul Daly

Before situating the Kerr Report in what I consider to be its historical context, let me begin with a quibble. The Kerr Report considered comparative materials in some detail. This must have taken considerable effort in days where information from the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand …

Joseph McDonald

On 1 September 2021, the High Court handed down its judgment on a novel question of statutory interpretation in Director of Public Prosecutions Reference No 1 [2021] HCA 26 (DPP Reference No 1). The question for the Full Court was the interpretation of s 17 of the Crimes Act 1958 ...

Joshua Forrest & Adrienne Stone

On 13 October 2021, the High Court handed down its decision in Ridd v James Cook University [2021] HCA 32. The decision concludes a bitter, long-running and unedifying legal dispute between James Cook University (JCU) and a former professor, Peter Ridd. It also usefully clarifies the status, content …