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Professor Cheryl Saunders AO

Accountability for cross-jurisdictional bodies

Many aspects of government in Australia involve intergovernmental relations in some form. This important genre of largely executive action needs somehow to be accommodated within arrangements for political accountability primarily shaped for unitary jurisdictions. Most intergovernmental arrangements involve institutions or bodies that are multi-jurisdictional in character. These present a distinctive challenge for accountability, which must be secured in a way that also preserves, and preferably enhances, the capacity of the body to fulfil its intergovernmental purpose. This Senate Lecture will examine the nature and range of cross-jurisdictional bodies in Australia and the issues that arise in determining accountability mechanisms for them. To this end, it will distinguish three types of cross-jurisdictional bodies: political, advisory, and regulatory. While the focus of the Lecture is primarily on Australia, with its distinctive mix of federalism and parliamentary democracy, it also will draw on comparative experience to the extent it is relevant here.

Professor Cheryl Saunders AO is a Laureate Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne. Her areas of expertise are in the fields of Australian and comparative public law and she has long-standing specialist interests in federalism and intergovernmental relations. She was the founding Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School and she is a convenor of the Constitution Transformation Network.