What are the basic principles set out in the Federal Constitution?
First, it is important to note that the Federal Constitution is the supreme law of the land (Article 4(1)). That is an established and unarguable proposition. People who question it or wish to have it reconsidered are in fact questioning the very foundation of the Constitution. It’s a cornerstone principle. You take it (the Constitution’s supremacy) away, [and] the Constitution becomes something quite different from what it is meant to be. But that doesn’t preclude it from being amended along the way, right? Yes. But if you take that away, you’ve taken away the foundation stone on which, for example, your house is built. I remember Professor R.H. Hickling, who was in the Attorney-General’s Chambers at the time when the Federal Constitution was being made by the Reid Commission, once saying that ïto misunderstand Article 4 (on the Constitution’s supremacy) is to misunderstand the whole Constitution’. To change that would be to change the basis on which our country became independent and
