Albury Hume Rotary Club president Peter Lee with former High Court judge Michael Kirby who officially launched the book by CSU constitutional law expert Bede Harris, right. Picture: TARA GOONAN

GAY marriage should be voted on in parliament, not in a referendum, former High Court judge Michael Kirby said during a visit to the Border yesterday.

Mr Kirby launched the book of Charles Sturt University senior lecturer and constitutional law expert Dr Bede Harris at the university in Thurgoona yesterday.

There, Mr Kirby was asked to respond to a push led by independent MP Tony Windsor for gay marriage to be put to the public in a referendum in September.

He said it was the job of politicians to follow the lead of countries such as France and New Zealand and a referendum was unnecessary.

“It should be dealt with by parliament,” he said.

Mr Kirby wrote the foreword for Dr Harris’ book Freedom, Democracy and Accountability — A vision for a new Australian Constitution, a task he had grown used to.

“I write lots and lots of forewords to lots and lots of books. I’ve found that’s a way to get a lot of free books,” he joked.

Constitutional law was Mr Kirby’s bread and butter in his 25 years as a judge and he said debate about it was always a good thing given very few people had ever read the document.

The book, which outlines how the Constitution works and why it needs to be reformed, was 18 months’ worth of writing and a lifetime of work for Dr Harris, who moved to Australia from Zimbabwe 15 years ago.

“The state of civic education in Australia is such most people don’t understand how the Constitution works and because they don’t understand it, they’re scared of changing it,” Dr Harris said.

“Politicians strike fear of constitutional reform because they’re masters of it.”

There have been 44 attempts but only eight changes to the 113-year-old Constitution with referendums on local government and gay marriage the latest changes debated politically that could be put to the public come September.

Dr Harris said the question was not if the Constitution needed to be overhauled but rather, what did you start with?

He said Australia needed a Bill of Rights, fairer electoral system and enhancement of the powers of parliamentary committees to make politicians more accountable to parliament.

Author: Tammy Mills
Publication: The Border Mail
Publication Date: May 3 2013