Monday Forum 5 February 2018 - as you will

The first Monday Forum for 2018 and indeed the first one for a while. With lower posting, both traffic and comments are down, but the Forums do provide an opportunity to raise and discuss things that I have ignored.

This Forum is again an open one. But first, a few brief comments, reports.

The latest public opinion poll shows a marginal improvement in the Turnbull Government's position. Is it too early to suggest that the Government's position is stabilising?

Lyle Shelton, previously managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, has stepped down to join Senator Bernardi's Australian Conservatives. ranks.

The Australian Conservatives are quite well resourced. Accepting this and that they are really only targeting a niche vote, I cannot see them having much impact. Is this view right?

My Canadian cousins have now left for New Zealand. At drinks, they expressed some incredulity at the Australian citizenship row in Federal Parliament. Cousin Diana, a Canadian citizen, was born in London while father Cyril was doing his PhD. This makes her eligible for UK citizenship plus New Zealand because both parents were born there. Daughter Eleanor has the same mix plus I think Austrian (or is it Swiss or both?) through her father.

The citizenship row continues with the resignation of Labor's David Feeney. The ABC's Matthew Doran has quite a useful summary of the present position, including the down stream effects.Youngest continues to argue that in most cases the problem is due to sloppy housekeeping, but also thinks that Section 44 of the Australian constitution should be changed to better reflect modern Australia.That is my view too. But what form might the amendment take? And could we get it through?

Unlike marcellous, I am not an especially musical person. I am not a good singer, and there wasn't a lot of music around. Now marcellous is  Pissed orff at changes to ABC classical radio. These are, I think, part of a broader set of ABC changes that do imperil Australia's cultural history.

Finally, and this is an opening shot, how do we reconcile the conflict between models of representative government and corporate government in areas such local government, universities and medical colleges?

These are just some rough topics. Over to you.

Update 6 February on the continuing citizenship imbroglio

Over on The Converation, Professor Hal Colebatch provides a useful summary ( How the Australian Constitution, and its custodians, ended up so wrong on dual citizenship) of  the history of Section 44 of the Australian Constitution. In an earlier piece that I missed, .Joshua Gans reports in Opinions on High that the High: Court may no longer expedite MP eligibility referrals.

In a related matter, the High Court will today consider whether the Jacquie Lambie Network's number two candidate in Tasmania, Steve Martin, should be allowed to take Ms Lambie's former Senate seat despite holding a position as a local mayor. The SBS report notes that case will test part of Section 44 that forbids those who hold an "office of profit under the Crown" from being elected to the federal parliament.

In a comment, Neil also pointed me to this piece by James Boyce.