Brian Galligan

Federalism in Asia

Until now there have been few attempts to examine the different models of federalism appropriate in Asia, let alone to trace the extent to which these different perspectives are compatible, converging, or mutually influencing each other. This book redresses the balance by demonstrating the varieties of Asian federalism.

Labor's reconciliation with federalism

Until the 1960s, the federal Labor party was formally pledged to the abolition of federalism and its replacement by a system in which the central government would have plenary powers and the states only delegated administrative responsibilities. This article examines how the ALPs platform was progressively changed during the 1960s and 1970s. The modification of Labors commitment to abolish federalism and the Senate was due partly to a more realistic sense of what was feasible and partly to a more sophisticated approach towards working the existing system. But, as well, Labors social and economic goals had been moderated to ones that were congenial to middle Australia and private enterprise. Progressive changes to Labors platform were an important precondition for the Whitlam governments ‘new federalism’ in the 1970s, and the Hawke governments current initiative of ‘closer partnership with the states’ for reforming the practical working of the federal system.

The Oxford companion to Australian politics

Although there is deep academic disagreement on exactly what the ‘rule of law’ is, and whether it is a good thing, there is—paradoxically—widespread consensus that Australia exhibits the rule of law to a high degree; more so than most other nations. There are two broad ways in which the rule of law may be conceived: as ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ theories of the rule of law. Each can be taken to extremes. An extreme version of the ‘thin’ theory is seen as purely formal: as long as coercive acts are clothed with the official authorisation of the governing regime, they are ‘law’ and the regime is a ‘law‐governed state’. The concern with this conception is, in Jeffersons words, that ‘law is often but the tyrants will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual’. Geoffrey Robertson (1999) records being assured by officials of one African dictatorship that their state ‘embodied the rule of law: the Constitution laid down that there shall be only one party, and there was’. An extreme example of a ‘thick’ theory makes the rule of law too substantive, so that it exists only when the laws are just and wise, both in their origin—from some font of acknowledged authority, such as democratic consent or divine command—and their outcomes, when they sufficiently protect rights, maximise utility, or uphold Gods law. Thus the International Congress of Jurists, meeting at New Delhi in 1959, defined the rule of law to include ‘the social, economic, educational and cultural conditions … essential to the full development of… [the individuals] personality’. Raz (1977) criticises this ‘promiscuous’ expansion of the term: ‘we have no need to be converted to the Rule of Law … to believe that good should triumph’—and advocates instead a version of the more balanced position held by other jurists of the political left.

Amending Constitutions through the Referendum Device

This chapter is concerned with the use of the referendum device as a mechanism for constitutional change. Such an institutional mechanism is grounded in democratic constitutional theory and is a well-established part of some constitutional democracies. Current interest in direct democracy is mainly focused on popular initiatives and referendums as alternative mechanisms to ordinary decision making by representatives. Such ‘unmediated popular voting’ is supported by some as a purer form of democratic participation that cuts out the mediation of representatives, or what economists might call the transaction costs of indirectness (Budge, 1996, chapter 2) on issues such as immigration or taxation. Such referendums might be seen as being in conflict with, or narrowing the scope for, the normal decision making of representative democracy.

Australia’s Citizenship Void

According to W. K. Hancock, writing in 1930, Australians distinguished themselves from Indians and other such people of the British Empire because they were ‘citizen subjects’ rather than ‘subject citizens’.1 Many Australians from earlier and later generations were proud to be citizen subjects, which according to Hancock meant being ‘independent Australian Britons’, a people ‘nourished by a glorious literature and haunted by old memories’: in effect, a people ‘in love with two soils’, the Australian and the British.2 As recently as the late 1960s this positive view was championed by Sir Robert Menzies, for whom the attributes of British subject were perhaps the better part of Australian citizenship.

Protecting the citizen body: The commonwealth's role in shaping and defending an ‘Australian’ population

This article traces the activities of the Commonwealth in shaping a population that it felt comfortable with and capable of governing successfully from 1901 to 1962. We argue that the body of desirable Australian citizens was defined negatively by who was to be excluded, in particular ‘aboriginal natives’. This quickly became an area of administrative rather than legislative concern. A close examination of the archival record illuminates the bureaucratic image of the desirable Australian and the modes by which that image was generated. The administrative activities increasingly focused on the ‘hard cases’, particularly those of the so‐called ‘half‐castes’. A narrow reasoning process, propensity to make expedient changes to established practice, and the metaphorical language in which the issue was discussed shaped the administrations thinking on citizenship policy.

Regularising the Australian republic

This article argues that Australias constitutional system is essentially republican and only barely disguised by monarchic symbols and forms. In any case, these have been changing in recent decades towards symbolising Australian republican, rather than British monarchic, realities. Hence much of the current republican agitation is overdrawn and based on a misunderstanding of the true character of the regime or an exaggerated emphasis on its monarchic symbols and executive formulations. Once Australias true republican character is appreciated, the outstanding issues can be seen as more modest ones of switching formal symbols, sorting out the surrogate vice‐regal heads of state, and rewriting the executive sections of the Commonwealth and state constitutions. In effect, the task for the 1990s is not creating, but only regularising, the Australian republic.

The regulation of direct foreign investment in the Australian mining sector

Abstract Although Australia has relied on foreign capital and multinational corporations to develop its mining sector, it has been successful in restricting foreign ownership and control to 50 per cent The Australian experience provides a valuable case study because its successive minerals and energy booms in the last two decades occurred before and after restrictions were imposed and the Foreign Investment Review Board established in the mid‐1970s. During the prior minerals boom when there were virtually no restrictions, levels of foreign ownership and control increased from less than 30 to 50 per cent. During the second energy boom, in the late 1970s to early 1980s, a firm policy of 50 per cent Australian participation in all mining projects was successfully implemented. Australia did not become a ‘client state’ of international capitalism, nor did its federal system preclude the regulation of foreign investment The article summarises the results of Australias regulatory policy and examines the politic...

The Federalism Debate

These papers examine current Australian federalism from the perspectives of an academic and a practitioner. Both acknowledge the opportunities arising from the current White Paper process, as well as challenges in the face of substantial cuts of proposed funding from the Commonwealth to the States. They insist upon the need for renewed commitment to the idea of federalism, and the importance of sustainable fiscal arrangements within the federation. Challenges in Reforming Australian federalism reminds us of the kind of federalism operative in Australia – concurrent, not coordinate – and develops reform proposals accordingly. Ten Steps to a Better Federation offers a range of ideas from a former state premier, drawing on his experience as both a participant at Council of Australian Government (COAG) and, later, Chair of the COAG Reform Council.

Rights Protection – Comparative Perspectives

The formation of the United Nations in 1945 ushered in a new ‘age of rights’ (Bobbio 1996). According to the UNs Charter, its purposes include ‘promoting and encouraging respect for human rights a...