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On 17 March 2020, Tasmania entered a 'state of emergency' in response to COVID-19. Parliament stands adjourned, and the executive is regulating the crisis through delegated regulations that significantly limit civil rights and freedoms. Despite assurances that Tasmania's Subordinate Legislation Committee would scrutinise executive power throughout the crisis, its role has been limited, due to an overly prescriptive (and we argue incorrect) reading of Tasmania's scrutiny framework, which has not been properly reformed in several decades. This is a salient lesson as to why constitutional laws require regular review and modernisation, to ensure parliaments remain supreme even (and especially) during crises and emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) geoengineering, the proposal to counteract anthropogenic climate change by large-scale removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, is playing an increasingly prominent role in the modelling that informs international climate change policy. Most of the modelling for the 1.5-2°C temperature stabilisation targets of the Paris Agreement assumes that large-scale CDR will start by 2030 and be in full swing by 2050. The research, testing and development of CDR technologies needed to support these expectations pose significant challenges for international and domestic climate change law. Prominent examples of CDR proposals include bioenergy production with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and carbon sequestration by ocean fertilisation. Australia has vast land and marine estates so has a natural advantage to contribute to the research, field-testing and development and implementation of CDR. Despite this, there has been little analysis to date of how Australian law might govern CDR research, testing and development. Using case studies of BECCS and ocean fertilisation CDR techniques, this article examines the capacity of current Australian law to govern CDR research. We find that general environmental legislation might provide a basic governance framework for research and field-testing of BECCS and ocean fertilisation, but recommend that specific laws be developed if CDR is to play a prominent role in meeting Australia’s international climate change commitments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to the recent passage of same-sex marriage law and the establishment of a Religious Freedom Inquiry (the Ruddock Panel), there has been considerable public debate on whether current exemptions for religious bodies under anti-discrimination law should be extended to individuals with a religious or conscientious objection to same-sex marriage. The authors compared current proposals for widening exemptions in anti-discrimination legislation to the legal position in the 29 other jurisdictions which permit same-sex marriage. If proposals that are currently debated were enacted, Australia would be the only jurisdiction to wind back its protections for LGBTIQ+ individuals against discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the tension between the judicial and legislative branches of government, and the case of Rodney Nichols, who filed a complaint of discrimination against the Commonwealth with Tasmania's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner.