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Samuel Griffiths Society conference August 2009

The Samuel Griffiths Society http://www.samuelgriffith.org.au/ is an organisation dedicated to 'upholding the Australian Constitution'. Their annual conference was held in Adelaide and I attended the conference on Saturday 29 August as a day registrant. 

It was an interesting gathering, including many luminaries from the conservative side of politics past and present.

The presenters at the morning sessions, John Hatzistergos (NSW Attorney General) and Christian Porter (WA Attorney General) weretalking about the current debate over a bill of rights for Australia. They were skeptical about the consultation process and negative about the concept, for reasons which were well argued but probably not representative of the views of a wide range of the population. A paper by Miranda Devine of the Australian which was read in her absence was even more so, and quite vitriolic at times.

  In the afternoon, David Bennett , former Solicitor General, spoke about his role and the process by which section III of the constitution ensures an independedn judiciary. Bryan Pape spoke about his unsuccessful attempt in the High Court to overturn the government's stimulus package, and explained that the judgement in his case could have wide ranging ramifications for government payments and tied grants in the future.

  Later, Jonathan Pincus from the University of Adelaide presented a fascinating paper in which he argued that the states are abdicating their responsibilities by assigning so many powers to the commonwealth, and that this is against both the letter and the spirit of our federal constitution.

  Scott Prasser  from Australian Catholic University and Dean Jaensch from Flinders University rounded off the day with some very convincing arguments for the retention of Upper Houses in legislatures. Both spoke of the unfortunate and undemocratic resuls in Queensland of the abolition of their upper house in 1922. Both also argued strongly that party discipline in the two major political parties in Australia is a major cause of dysfunctionality in the Senate and state upper houses.

Tags: civics history education constitution politics
Posted at 05:05PM Aug 30, 2009 by Nigel Mitchell  |