DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF LAW
1997 DEAKIN LAW SCHOOL PUBLIC ORATION
FRIDAY 22 AUGUST 1997
DEAKIN - POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY AND THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONSTITUTION
"Others have discerned in federation itself essentially republican features of government by which the Crown, formerly unified, was divided into the many "rights" of the jurisdictions of the Constitution."
"Republican government tends to be diffuse and subdivided so as to be more immediately accountable to the people. Monarchical government tends to be strong and centralised - formerly in the person of the sovereign but now in whoever the Parliament elects to govern."
"However that may be, the big debate a hundred years ago concerned the fracture point between the role of the people in creating and then governing a Commonwealth and the role of legislatures, voted for by the people, but safely containing experts and providing a filter against the risk of popular passions."
"The direct voice of the people, as the perceived excesses and instabilities of the French and American Revolutions had shown, might introduce dangerous elements of chaos and populism, with risks to property interests and, despite the rhetoric, with perils to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. "
"There was no rebellion against British authority. There was continuity."
"if society no longer identifies with the law, then its constitutional democracy is at risk"