Everything you need to know about the possibilities and responsibilities that come with the Australian constitution.

Far from being an unchangeable, technical legal contract, A People’s Guide to the Australian Constitution illustrates how the Australian Constitution gives people the power to participate in and decide the shape of government and the policies it adopts. Leading legal academics Rosalind Dixon and William Partlett shed light on what Governor General John Kerr didn’t understand about the Constitution when he dismissed the Whitlam Government, the tension between Australia’s Christian settler colonial constitutional identity and the recognition of First Nations peoples, the advantages and risks of constitutional change and much more. At almost 125 years old, Australia’s constitution is one of the oldest in the world, and while this has brought stability, it also enables the people to participate in adapting it to changing times.