Papers by Harry Evans


Harry Evans is the longest serving Clerk of the Senate (1988 – 2009). This page contains a collection of his published writing.

Title Year
The Senate's Power to Obtain Evidence 2010
Bills of Rights and Legislative Scrutiny: Two different worlds 2009
The intertwined history of Canberra and the Parliament 2009
Accountability and Corporate Governance in the new Parliament 2008
Legislative Power and Executive Privilege in the Courts 2008
Parliamentary Privilege and Search Warrants: Will the US Supreme Court Legislate for Australia? 2008
The Senate, accountability and government control 2008
Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia Conference, 26 July 2007 2007
Elections: Constitutional complexities and consequences 2007
GetUp! Seminar on the Senate 2007
Parliament in the Twenty-first Century: Institutional reform and emerging roles 2007
Having the Numbers Means Not Having to Explain: The Effect of the Government Majority in the Senate 2007
Constitutionalism, Bicameralism and the Control of Power 2006
Ethics and public service governance 2006
The government majority in the Senate: A nail in the coffin of responsible government? 2006
Monarchical and parliamentary government in Australia 2006
Senate estimates hearings and the Government majority in the Senate 2006
The Traditional, the Quaint and the Useful: Pitfalls of Reforming Parliamentary Procedures 2004
Fitzpatrick and Browne: Imprisonment by a House of the Parliament 2003
The Australian Parliament: Time for reformation 2002
The Pedigree of the Practices: Parliamentary Manuals and Australian Government 2002
An Elected President for an Australian Republic: Problems and Solutions 2001
Bryce's Bible: Why did it impress the Australian founders? 2001
Hobbes Versus Madison and Isaacs Versus Baker: Contrary Theories and Practices in Australian Democracy 2001
The Role of the Senate 2001
The Australian Constitution and the 1911 Myth 2000
The 1911 Myth Embellished, by Gough 2000
Reasonably Necessary Powers: Parliamentary Inquiries and Egan v Willis and Cahill 1999
Enough of Executive Arrogance?: Egan v Chadwick and Others 1999
Franca Arena and parliamentary privilege 1998
The other metropolis: The Australian Founders' knowledge of America 1998
Bad King John and the Australian Constitution 1997
Constitution, Section 57: Comments on Article by George Williams 1997
Federalism: an idea whose time has come? 1997
Protection of persons who provide information to Members 1997
The Australian Head of State: Putting Republicanism into the Republic 1996
1975 Revisited: Lost Causes and Lost Remedies 1995
Electing a President: the elite versus the public 1995
Parliamentary privilege and statutory secrecy provisions 1992
Parliamentary Reform: New Directions and Possibilities for Reform of Parliamentary Processes 1992
Parliament: An Unreformable Institution 1992
Parliamentary privilege: Reasons of Mr Justice Hunt—an analysis 1987
Parliamentary privilege: The reasons of Mr Justice Cantor—an analysis 1986

Harry was known – notorious even in some circles – as a defender of the Senate and the rights of individual senators as he worked tirelessly to assist them to perform their constitutional duties. He was fearless in emphasising the necessary distinction between the parliament and the executive, even though that made him unpopular with various governments over the years.

Parliament is a place where words matter and Harry will long be remembered as a master wordsmith. In his numerous published and unpublished writings, he explained complex constitutional and procedural matters with clarity, logic and style.

Dr Rosemary Laing, former Clerk of the Senate