The weakness with which the doctrine of separation of powers is applied in Australia has the practical effect of substantially removing any obstacle to the legislative growth of the executive government. Fairly described as an ‘elective dictatorship’, it is therefore no wonder so many of our basic rights can be ignored and violated. If you think that is an acadamic abstraction, two words: Covid lockdowns

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Since there is no legal-institutional mechanism for holding the UK's parliamentary government to account, the effect is that it is accountable to no one, except every five years at general elections. The consequences have now been demonstrated by three years of the COVID hysteria's arbitrary edicts and arrests

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E-voting machines with no paper records, openly partisan judges, critics jailed and their bank accounts seized -- that's what passes for 'democracy' in Brazil. None of those facts appear to trouble Australia's establishment media outlets, happy as they are regurgitate the received wisdom of favoured leftist sources,. And, inevitably, to make pretzels of logic in crying 'Trump! Trump! Trump!'

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Queensland's Labor Government – with support from the LNP opposition – has passed the Health Practitioner Regulation Amendment Bill 2022. This fundamentally reshapes the relationship between doctors, patients and health regulators by granting bureaucrats the authority to endorse medical treatments and shame doctors who beg to differ

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Many Western pundits predicted the sweeping and unprecedented sanctions imposed after the Ukraine invasion would bring the Russian economy to its knees. That hasn't been case. Instead, the ruble has risen, unemployment is at record lows and, despite protests and dissent, Putin remains popular on the homefront. Meanwhile, the West sinks into recession

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James Allan observes in his important new book that today’s constitutional orthodoxy rejects what is unkindly described as 'ancestor worship', the taking into account the intention of 'long-dead constitutional makers'. The preference these days, he writes with disdain, favours the beliefs, sentiments and favoured policies of a handful of top judges

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Evil is often perpetrated by governments under the guise of ‘safety’ and ‘public health’, as the Nazi years in Germany serve to remind those prepared to recognise history's lessons. True, no one is equating Premier Mark McGowan with Hitler, just their manipulations to keep the populace scared and its anger directed at officially designated villians. In WA's case, that is the rest of the country

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Sooner or later, Australian police will be reminded that 'just following orders' is no excuse for serving as instruments of State oppression. As governments indulge their COVID-era bent for control and punishment in advancing the chilling diktat that vaccination refuseniks have no the right to earn a living, it is incumbent on individual officers to cry 'Enough and no more!'

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It is increasingly clear the principle of legality is no longer regarded as important by some elements of the judicial elite, at least insofar as governments can allege the 'emergencies' they declare justify the enactment of measures that profoundly affect our fundamental rights and freedoms. There is an unsettling precedent for the law's endorsement of the unacceptable

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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

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