Speaking as an academic, the news that the High Court had ruled against Peter Ridd was a chilling moment. The suppression of free speech has become a very real thing in many of our universities, with the silencing of minority opinion quite systematic. James Cook University's legal victory has made open and honest debate a dangerous undertaking

Read More

That our individual rights will be protected while the values that gave birth to the concept of constitutional government are being deliberately abandoned is a dangerous assumption indeed. It is also a good reason to value Zachary Gorman's fine new book, 'Summoning Magna Carta: Freedom's Symbol Over a Millennium'

Read More

Despite their self-proclaimed success in the 'war' on COVID-19, Australia's premiers give no indication they are willing to terminate their emergency powers or decrease the use of health directives. Instead, the political establishment has capitalised on public fear and the complicity of a docile, unquestioning press to pursue the gradual consolidation of unchecked rule

Read More

The NSW Premier makes no bones that lockdowns and restrictions are 'the new way of life' in Australia. In Western Australia, the new way of life means police can fit you with electronic ankle bracelets for monitoring non-compliance with public health edicts. Increasingly, the COVID epidemic is about government power and control

Read More

Those advocating obligatory vaccination and 'COVID passports', without which refuseniks would be denied work, travel, even admission to restaurants and sports stadia, are displaying their ignorance of sections 51 and 52 of the Constitution. Simply put, no federal or state government can impose compulsory vaccination or sanction those who decline

Read More

Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews signed up with Beijing's Belt& Road, but much as his admiration for Beijing knows few bounds, his support for China has been mute in comparison with his Western Australian counterpart's advocacy on behalf of the Middle Kingdom

Read More

The Constitution treats everyone equally, regardless of when their ancestors arrived. So why the clamour for indigenous recognition when it is clearly not a racist document? Why is it claimed to be necessary to amend the Constitution when every jurisdiction in this country has already legislated for racial non-discrimination?

Read More

Incompetence, vainglorious arrogance, lies, blind eyes on the bench and an aggressively politicised police force have all helped make Victoria an even more miserable spectacle in this age of COVID. That the Andrews government continues drowning the state in the cesspit of its own corruption is to be expected. But why is the Prime Minister defending and underwriting the race to ruin?

Read More

That the demoted attorney-general would claim a triumph in the resolution of his libel action against the ABC is understandable. His political career has been, if not wrecked, certainly shunted into a siding, there is to be no vindication nor reversal of calumnies, and his ABC tormenters remain defiantly and loudly unchastened

Read More

Gabriël A. Moens AM is Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Queensland. Confined to his home office last year, he went through his dusty files. He found many papers and speeches, written in the 1990s and earlier, which have never been published. To our great profit he has collected twelve of these papers […]

Read More