1303rd OGM and Open Lecture

“Federalism, borders, and National Cabinet — What has the pandemic taught us?”

Professor Anne Twomey AO

Professor of Constitutional Law
Sydney Law School, University of Sydney

Date: Wednesday, 1 June 2022, 6.30 pm AEST 
Venue: Gallery Room, State Library of NSW, Shakespeare Place, Sydney 
Video presentation: YouTube video
All are welcome

Summary:  Professor Twomey will discuss who is responsible for matters such as State border closures, quarantine and vaccine mandates, and what the Constitution has to say about it. The operation of a federal system in a national crisis, such as a pandemic, can cause confusion, but also reap benefits. The National Cabinet was supposed to provide national coordination while still allowing each State to deal with the different circumstances it faced. Has it succeeded, or is it just a mechanism for spreading a cloak of secrecy over government operations?

Anne Twomey is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney. She has previously worked for the High Court, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee, and the Cabinet Office of New South Wales. She has had practical experience in the operation of federalism, when working for the NSW Government, and has written extensively on federalism in the academic sphere.