One of Australia's leading constitutional lawyers will deliver the second in a series of lectures to promote dialogue on the subject of Statehood for the NT in the lead up to the Constitutional Convention.
The lecture will be hosted by the Northern Territory’s emerging “thinktank”, The Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University's flagship research institute for social and public policy research, development and education, social sciences and humanities.
University of New South Wales Professor George Williams AO, an expert in constitutional law and reform, will speak on “The Path to Statehood: The Northern Territory as Australia’s Seventh State”.
Professor Williams said he would talk about why the NT should become a state and how to get there.
“Territorians can use the lessons learned from the previous attempt in 1998 to lead them down the right path this time,” Professor Williams said.
He said he also would discuss the rules of successful constitutional reform, the subject of his latest book entitled People Power: The History and Future of the Referendum in Australia.
“People power is the key,” Professor Williams said. “Any attempt towards Statehood without community involvement and understanding is doomed to fail.
“For constitutional reform to be successful in the NT it needs to be a people’s process, led by the community, but with support from both political parties.”
The Northern Institute Director, Professor Daniela Stehlik, said the debate about Statehood in the NT remained very much alive within the community and the series aimed to bring people together to create discussion and interest.
This will feed into the Northern Territory Government’s recent announcement that the next stage in the statehood process would be a fully elected constitutional convention held in Darwin in April 2012.
“The Path to Statehood: The Northern Territory as Australia’s Seventh State” will be held on Wednesday, 21 September from 5pm to 7pm in the Nitmiluk Lounge and Dining Room, Parliament House, Mitchell Street, Darwin.
To register visit: http://www.cdu.edu.au/about/events/tni-seventh-state