Recent News
It should not be ignored that when the Prime Minister announced the appointment of Jenny Wilkinson as the first woman to lead the Treasury, Treasurer Jim Chalmers pointed out that under this government, women now lead the Treasury, Reserve Bank (Michele Bullock) and Productivity Commission (Danielle Wood), all for the first time. Chalmers could have also added into this mix Gina Cass-Gottlieb, as the current chair of the ACCC who began in March 2022…
“There is a powerful irony in Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to change the Constitution to enable the government, not the courts, to strip dual Australian citizens of their citizenship.”
Renown Australian journalist and author Geraldine Brooks has tried for four years to secure her adopted son, Bizu, an Australian citizenship. Bizu was adopted by Geraldine and her late husband Tony when they lived in the US. The complex case has raised the question of what it means to be an Australian citizen.
Guests: Geraldine Brooks, Bizu Brooks Horwitz, Professor Kim Rubenstein, University of Canberra.
There's some reporting out today in newscorp papers saying that one in three citizenship tests taken last year were failed. Out of one hundred and eighty three thousand tests, one hundred and twenty two thousand of them did not pass. Let's get the thoughts of Professor Kim Rubinstein from the University of Canberra Citizenship Law expert.
With the 47th Parliament now in its final sitting week of 2024, the government is aiming to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 - laws core to Australian democracy, as they regulate House and Senate elections and call for members of Parliament to be "directly chosen by the people"…
The Australian Constitution, as described by the Parliamentary Education Office, is 'the birth certificate’ of our nation as it is today. It is what provides the basic rules for the government of Australia, and it lays out the fundamental laws of Australia that every State and Federal Parliament is bound to.
Rod caught up with lawyer, academic, author and distinguished human rights advocate Professor Kim Rubenstein, to discuss what constitutes our constitution!
While job sharing is becoming more and more common in Australian workplaces, it's never happened for members of parliament. Bronwen Bock and Lucy Bradlow are campaigning to job-share the role of the federal member for Higgins, in Melbourne's east.
But not everyone is convinced it can work. Nas Campanella and Rhiannon Hobbins report.
Time travellers to the Scullin government era of 1930 may well feel that strands of oppositional opinion move not at all when they jump forward to meet some of the reaction to the Prime Minister's announcement of Samantha Mostyn AO as Australia's 28th governor general…
Opinion Piece: Continuing our politics in this country in the same brute and brutal way is not really not an option anymore.
7AM PODCAST: Why judges will soon get to decide ‘Australian values’
Constitutional and citizenship expert and contributor to The Saturday Paper Professor Kim Rubenstein on why a new set of laws are forcing us to reckon with what it means to be Australian.
In 2008, as a member of the independent committee reviewing the Australian citizenship test, I asked if the committee could recommend all people resident in Australia be required to pass the citizenship test.
Kim Rubenstein Opinion Piece in the Saturday Paper
The number of people passing the Australian citizenship tests has dropped significantly under the Albanese government.
Citizenship Law Expert and Test Reviewer Professor Kim Rubenstein told Sky News Australia that “there’s a difference” between the level of English required to undertake the test and the level required to become a citizen.
The amount of English knowledge needed to undertake the test is of a higher standard than the basic understanding needed to become an Australian citizen, according to Professor Rubenstein.
Professor Kim Rubenstein on Channel 7 Weekend Sunrise
The federal government will be desperately hoping the passage of its Preventative Detention bill last night will bring an end to weeks of political drama that's followed the High Court's decision to invalidate indefinite detention.
But it's unclear how many of the 148 people released from indefinite detention could actually be re-incarcerated under the new laws, or how long that process would take. And it's also not clear whether the rushed legislation will survive the inevitable high court challenge.
Guest: Kim Rubenstein, Professor in the Faculty of Business, Government and Law at the University of Canberra
Abul Rizvi, former Deputy Secretary of the Immigration Department
Today, University of Canberra constitutional and citizenship law expert Professor Kim Rubenstein and chief political correspondent David Crowe on where to next for the government on indefinite immigration detention.
It’s troubling to treat dual citizens as more vulnerable to loss of citizenship, and for those rights to be protected only through a constitutional separation-of-powers principle.
Calling out the brutality of Hamas has not been a given, and critics of Israel have been quick to refocus away from the atrocities to Israel’s response.
Kim Rubenstein is a constitutional expert and a professor of law at the University of Canberra.
Later this year, we'll be voting on a proposed change to the Australian constitution.
But many Australians are unaware of its existence; how it works and what it does even though it underpins so much of our way of life.
Kim explains how the constitution came to be and more about the underlying principles and assumptions of the people who framed it more than a century ago.
Independent ACT senator David Pocock has stood side by side with his former 2022 rival for the ACT senate spot, constitutional expert Kim Rubenstein, to state the "strong case" for better territory representation both in increased numbers and doubling the terms to six years.
The Australian: Indigenous voice to parliament yes vote is the first step to true equality of citizenship (18 April 2023)
A Yes vote in the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum should be supported by all Australians no matter what their political leanings.
By KIM RUBENSTEIN
Kim Rubenstein on ABC NEWS 24 - ‘Labor strikes deal with Coalition ahead of Voice referendum’ (22 March 2023)
Kim Rubenstein on ABC News TV (10 February 2023).
Canberra Times: Has the Power of Women Voters Improved Policy? (5 July 2022)
Canberra Times: Dual Citizens Must Not Be Treated as Second-Class Citizens (15 June 2022)
ABC Radio National: Professor Kim Rubenstein Interview on the Law Report with Damien Carrick (14 June 2022)
Canberra Times: The Pitch - ACT Senate Candidates Final Forum (19 May 2022)
ABC Radio Canberra: Kim Rubenstein Interview on Drive with Anna Vidot (18 May 2022)
Sydney Morning Herald: ‘We’ve had a decade of no leadership’: Scientists back ALP on climate action plans (14 May 2022)
Win News: Independent Kim Rubenstein's Pitch For Gender Equity Overhaul (12 May 2022)
Canberra Times: Rubenstein Stands For Women's Revamp (12 May 2022)