Professor Helen Irving of the Law School at Sydney University has launched a new blog, “A Women’s Constitution” for women’s contributions to constitutional thinking and analysis. In her first post, she quotes Elizabeth Ward of New South Wales in 1897: ” a nation…
The R word is abroad again but it’s not Republic this time. The new campaign for the recognition of our Indigenous peoples in the Constitution, building on the Youmeunity campaign that ran for the last few years, launches today. R is for Recognise – a big red R…
The commemorative edition for 80 years of The Australian Women’s Weekly contains many photos and snippets of the royals, not only the British ones. In this pictorial record of women’s social history in 20th century Australia, hardly a page goes by without a reference to or…
The Joint Select Committee on Constitutional Recognition of Local Government recommends a referendum at the same time as the next federal election. Another glimmer of hope for a referendum after a very long (too long) drought. The last one was the…
Our stable, constitutional monarchy isn’t working properly. This time, it’s Queensland refusing to give up its direct constitutional links to the Crown and not cooperating with the rest of the Federation in one piece of federal legislation to recognise the…
WfaAR has had a reply from the Government that provided no answers to our questions and no information that we didn’t already know. This isn’t satisfactory so we have written again inviting responses to our detailed questions – see News of…
This year Women’s History Month features and celebrates Founding Women: Mothers of Federation. For further information and events during March, see the WHM website that contains a gallery of outstanding women who were active in the development of federation and achieving the…
In a speech given at the British Museum, Brooker Prize winning author Hilary Mantel, comments on the way that the British Monarchy suppresses and the media interprets its women: (glamorously) seen but not heard and largely unknown. Athough her perceptive statements about “their Kate” were…
After the failure of the proposal to hold a referendum to add Indigenous recognition to our Constitution, the Government succeeds in getting an act of recognition passed in the lower House on the fifth anniversity of the apology to the…
WfaAR notes with regret that Nicola Roxon has resigned as federal Attorney-General and will return to the backbench before leaving Parliament at the next election due in September. Ms Roxon is the most publicly enthusiastic republican in the Cabinet, if not among the parliamentary members of the…
