‘Chosen by the People’? how Federal Parliamentary Seats Might be Reserved for Indigenous Australians without Changing the constitution

Abstract

The silence of the Constitution on many matters affecting our system of representative democracy and responsible government has some positive consequences. For example, if then current ideas as to the electoral franchise had been written into the Constitution in 1901, our system might now be at odds with our notions of democracy.

Chief Justice Murray Gleeson, 2004. ¹

1

Mulholland v Australian Electoral Commission (2004) 220 CLR 181, 189.