George Williams is Dean of Law at the University of New South Wales. This is the full text of his address to the National Press Club on 30 August 2017.

The relevance of Section 44 of the Australian Constitution has again been questioned. Despite the Prime Minister’s constitutionally inappropriate foretelling of the outcome, the High Court’s decision is far from predictable.

The ‘Canberra knows best’ approach does not work across the full range of national security issues.

This paper briefly recounts Papua New Guinea's constitutional crisis of 2011–12 and looks at political developments under the O’Neill government which came to power following the 2012 election.

Prior to the current term of Parliament, only five parliamentarians had ever lost their seats due to Constitutional eligibility reasons.