Click here for details about our next conference

2018 Conference - Brisbane

The Samuel Griffith Society held its 2018 annual conference in Brisbane.  For the third consecutive year, it was the Society's best-attended conference.  Key speakers included the Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia, a former Prime Minister, and a former Premier of Queensland.  

The conference featured a number of esteemed speakers, including politicians, jurists, commentators, academics, and a senior cleric.

A copy of the program can be found here.

Some of the topics at the conference included federalism, the republic, freedom of religion, as well as a session on issues arising out of the release of papers relating to the Hon Lionel Murphy.

The conference attracted significant media interest in the following days.

The following papers were presented to the conference:

The Hon. Susan Kiefel, AC
The High Court Justices and the Weight of War

Major General, Greg Melick, AO, SC
Lawyers in Action in World War I

The Hon. Campbell Newman
Not all the Smart People are in Canberra

Robyn Hollander
Morality Policy and Federalism

The Hon. David J S Jackson
McCawley and other cases in the light of Kirk

Nicholas Aroney
The Prospects of Australian Federalism

The Most Reverend Julian Porteous
The Freedom to Hold and Profess a Religious Belief

Gerard Henderson
The Media and Religion in Australia

Nicholas Cowdery, AO, QC
The Murphy Papers: Reflections on the Murphy Trials

The Hon. Stephen Charles, AO, QC
The Murphy Papers: The Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry

The Hon. Peter Dutton, MP
The Evolving State of Debate in Australia

The Hon. Tony Abbott, MP
Problems with a Plebiscite for a Republic

David Flint, AM
An Australian Republic? More than a Waste of Time and Money

Gray Connolly
Crown or Republic: There is no Via Media

The Hon. Dr Christopher Jessup, QC
The Strange Demise of the Conciliation and Arbitration Power

The Hon. Ian Callinan, AC, QC
Conclusion

Videos of the speeches can be accessed by clicking here.