UQ Law Professor Graeme Orr was the guest speaker this week at the 2017 University of Queensland Law Society MinterEllison Sir Harry Gibbs Lecture. Professor Orr presented his lecture titled: “Who Can Be an MP? The Constitution, the High Court and the Disqualification Farce”.
“The Australian Constitution does not guarantee voting rights. Yet it bars millions of ‘dual citizens’ – as well as anyone who holds ‘an office of profit under the Crown’ - from standing for the national parliament. Is this law justified or workable? Why are State elections not so constrained?
In this public lecture, the author of The Law of Politics explains the source of and procedures around this legal thicket. The High Court case involving the ‘Citizenship 7’ is also discussed and reform options canvassed. Electors, it is argued, should be free to choose any other elector to represent them.
Caligula once threatened to nominate his horse to the Roman senate, to make asses of them. But in Australia, the law may be making an ass of electoral democracy.”
“Who Can Be an MP? The Constitution, the High Court and the Disqualification Farce”
Sir Harry Gibbs Lecture, 16 October 2017, University of Queensland
Speaker: Professor Graeme Orr
