‘Varieties of Unicameralism’

Friday 31 July, 2009
ACT Legislative Assembly
Canberra, Australia

Conference sponsored by
Parliamentary Studies Centre

Conference Notice (updated 30 June 2009)

Parliaments and Bills of Rights:

Conference sponsored by Parliamentary Studies Centre and Centre for International and Public Law

Main Committee Room
Parliament House, Canberra
Friday 24 April, 2009

View Program (updated 20 April 2009)

Report on Parliaments and Bills of Rights Conference (updated 15 June 2009)

Strengthening Parliamentary Institutions

As part of the PSC’s Strengthening Parliamentary Institutions ARC project, co-sponsored by the Department of the House of Representatives and the Department of the Senate, a series of workshops has been held at Parliament House throughout 2008 reviewing papers to be published under the project’s auspices.

Bicameralism: Australia in Comparative Context

Sponsored by the Parliamentary Studies Centre, ANU
Parliament House, Canberra, 9-10 October 2008

Conference Notice (updated 30 September 2008)

Bicameralism Conference Report (updated 14 January 2009)

Legislative Benchmarks and Indicators – September 21-23 2008

With international organisations aware of the role of parliaments in ensuring good governance and policy, the World Bank Institute sponsored a workshop examining ways in which performance of legislatures (and of their legislative strengthening programmes) might be assessed was held at Griffith University in Brisbane. The workshop brought together international bodies (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, International IDEA, Inter-Parliamentary Union, UN Development Programme) with academics and parliamentary officials to review existing benchmark frameworks. Phil Larkin from the Parliamentary Studies Centre participated.

Architecture and Parliament: How Do Buildings Help Shape Parliamentary Business?

A Roundtable marking the 20th Anniversary of Parliament House.
Sponsored by Parliamentary Studies Centre, ANU and the Commonwealth Parliament
Parliament House, Canberra, 22 August 2008

Roundtable Notice (updated 16 August 2008)

Roundtable Final (updated 14 January 2009)

Legislative-Executive Relations and the War on Terror – March 18-19 2008

The Parliamentary Studies Centre sponsored a workshop on executive-legislative relations and the War on Terror, held at Griffith University in Brisbane. Papers examining the capacity of legislatures to scrutinise and hold government to account a number of countries since 9/11 were presented:

Australia: Phil Larkin and John Uhr (Australian National University)

Indonesia: Edward Schnieder (CUNY, USA)

Israel: Reuven Hazan (Hebrew University, Israel)

Italy: Riccardo Pelizzo (Griffith University, Australia)

Russia: Tom Remington (Emory University, USA)

UK: Mark Shepard (Strathclyde University , UK)

USA: John Owens (University of Westminster, UK)

Versions of the papers will appear as a special edition of the Journal of Legislative Studies in 2009.

View program

Workshop on Parliamentary Committee Systems, 15 and 16 February 2008

Main Committee Room, Parliament House, Canberra (Held in conjunction with House of Representatives Conference on 20th Aniversary of House Committee System)

15 February Workshop Agenda

16 February Workshop Agenda

View Worshop Report

Workshop - Public Leadership in Australia and Beyond: Political, bureaucratic and civic leadership in comparative perspective

University House, Australian National University 29-30 November 2007

View program

Parliament and International Conflict - what can parliaments contribute to decisions over war-making and peace-keeping? (part of the Govnet 2006 Conference on ‘Transformations in Governance’), 29 November to 1 December 2006, ANU

View website

Politics of Opposition: Minor Parties and Independents, 27 October 2006, ANU
Speakers: Senator Lyn Allison, Leader of the Australian Democrats; Norm Kelly, ANU and former WA MLC; Professor Richard Mulgan, ANU; Peter Andren, Independent, House of Representatives; Professor Brian Costar, Swinburne University, Melbourne; Dr Deb Foskey, Greens, ACT Legislative Assembly; Bob Katter, Independent, House of Representatives.

Listen to Upper House Speakers

Listent to lower House Speakers

The Future of the Select Committee System, 15 September 2006, National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

Read flyer
Listen to Session 1 (mp3)
Listen to Session 2 (mp3)

Politics of Opposition: The Official Opposition, 7 October 2005
Papers by Paul Malone (Canberra Times) and Ashley Lavelle (Griffith University)

Listen to presentation (mp3)

The PSC currently hosts two ARC-funded research projects

- 'Reconstructing Parliamentary Opposition: The Australian Experience’, Professor John Uhr and Dr Kevin Tuffin (Discovery grant awarded 2004)

- ‘Strengthening Parliamentary Institutions’, Professor John Uhr (Linkage grant awarded 2006)

International Collaborative Research Projects

Progress on international collaborative research projects, such as that being conducted jointly by John Uhr and Elizabeth McLeay comparing the experience of the Australian and New Zealand Parliaments responding to globalization (part of a larger comparative project being led by Dr Jennifer Curtin of Auckland University); and between the Centre and the Constitution Unit, University College London, on the ‘Governance of Parliament’

View website

Recent Research

A comprehensive bibliography of recent research on parliament is being compiled and a discussion paper series is planned.