CEFA's Constitutional Forum

Featured Article

Over the past week or so with thousands of Syrian refugees on the move in Europe and the media coverage of the drowning of little Aylan Kurdi in Turkey, there has been a huge reaction to the refugee crisis in Syria throughout the world.

Photo of the House of Lords

Here in Australia many people take joy in democratically electing those who will work for us in the Senate. But most Australians probably don’t realise that the people of the United Kingdom do not get to partake in the same activity as they don’t have an elected Upper House.

The discussion about electoral terms in Australia comes up every now and then. But did you know that electoral terms for both the House of Representatives and the Senate are stipulated in the Constitution?

Public discussion about Australia Post for the last few years has specifically been scrutinising the profitably of the service/business.

But did you know that postal service is found in the Constitution under Section 51 (v).

At the July COAG meeting in Sydney it was announced that the Northern Territory would push towards becoming a State in 2018. Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles said that the Territory was a “second class citizen” that had a “second-tier status in the nation”.

Former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop

Recent events leading up to resignation of the Speaker Bronwyn Bishop give us the opportunity to look at the role of the Speaker under the Westminster System.

On Tuesday 28 July, Jamie Williams appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court charged with a single count of engaging in conduct to prepare to enter a foreign country with the intention of engaging in hostile activity.

Our CCF last week, on the topic of the recent Greek referendum, received some great commentary and interaction on social media. One contributor suggested that we look at the way Switzerland conducts referendums.

Recently we witnessed a set of events in Greece that have been described as very strange. A “referendum” was called to give the people of Greece a choice about whether to accept a bail-out deal from their creditors.