House Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs

Committee activities (inquiries and reports)

Roundtable Discussion on Australia's Constitution

Thursday 20 June 2013
Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra.

The Social Policy and Legal Affairs Committee conducted an interactive roundtable discussion on Australia’s Constitution.

Members of the public were welcome to observe

Topics under discussion:

9:15am – 10:30am
The role of the High Court in interpreting the Constitution

• Watch video replay

• Read Hansard transcript

10.45am – 12.00pm
Campaigns to change the Constitution

• Watch video replay

• Read Hansard transcript

Invited participants included:

• Professor George Williams - The Anthony Mason Professor, a Scientia Professor and the Foundation Director of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of New South Wales.

• Dr Gabrielle Appleby - Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide Law School.

• Sir David Smith - Official Secretary to Governors General from 1973-1990.

• Mr Jack Waterford - Editor-at-Large of The Canberra Times.

• Professor Anne Twomey - Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney Law School, and the director of the university's Constitutional Reform Unit.

• Associate Professor Mark McKenna - Associate Professor of History at University of Sydney

• Emeritus Professor John Warhurst - Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Australian National University

In addition, members of the public were able to question constitutional experts via Twitter as part of the roundtable discussion.

See how Twitter was used in the roundtable discussion on June 20 2013.

Media Release

Wednesday 19 June 2013 - Tweet your questions to Constitutional roundtable discussion (PDF 4KB)

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