AUTUMN/WINTER 2025 • VOL 40 NO 1

It is with great pleasure that I introduce this Special Edition of the Australasian Parliamentary Review entitled ‘Parliament’s Resilience in a Changing World’, reflecting the title of the 2024 Australasian Study of Parliament Group’s Conference in Wellington, New Zealand (Pāremata Aotearoa). This Edition contains a number of papers presented at the ASPG Conference, spanning topics including the psychological wellbeing of parliamentary staff, by Dr Amy Yong from the New Zealand Parliamentary Library, to ‘turbo-charging’ civics education, by Maria Mead from the Queensland Parliament’s Education Team.

Contributors to this edition also explore the impact of technology on the work of parliaments, and the way parliaments interact with the outside world, including strategies for managing inquiries with thousands of submissions (by Stephen Fujiwara, Jessie Halligan and Kara McKee), helping parliamentarians to understand complex research (by Luke Buckmaster and Matthew Thomas), safeguarding parliamentarians from cyber ‘threats from the fringe’ (by Meredith Ross-James) and bridging the gap in institutional memory with artificial intelligence (by Caitlin Connally). Hong Thi Quang Tran from the Parliament of Victoria asks ‘to what extent should parliament embrace remote participation in the digital age?’ and Jessica Strout from the Parliament of Victoria invites us to consider ‘what’s at stake when parliamentary committee inquiries rely on voluntary executive cooperation?’. Leslie Gonye, former Deputy Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of NSW offers hope with an example of ‘one member seizing an opportunity’ and transforming parliamentary practice, and Matthew Johnson from the NSW Legislative Assembly makes the case for the wide use of ‘informal evidence’ in parliamentary committee inquiries.

This Special Edition also includes an erudite case analysis of the High Court’s recent decision in Attorney-General (Tas) v Casimaty, where Professor Dr Gabrielle Appleby (UNSW) and Associate Professor Dr Ryan Goss (ANU) explore the implications of the decision for the relationship between parliamentary privilege and the courts in Australia. The legal analysis continues with a fascinating and original contribution from Senior Lecturer Dr Jacinta Dharmananda from the University of Western Australia entitled ‘What Parliament Didn’t Say: The Effect of Silence during Legislative Scrutiny on Statutory Interpretation.’ We are also fortunate to include an insight from Dr David C Docherty and Brody Burr on the fall and potential resurgence of the Liberal Party in Canada. I express deep gratitude to all authors and reviewers involved in this publication and commend the contents to you.

Dr Sarah Moulds, Associate Professor in Law, UniSA, May 2025