Australian federalism after the Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has been, among other things, a stress-test for the resilience of legal systems all over the world. Despite their differences, the ways in which liberal democracies responded to the recent pandemic share two salient features. First, institutional responses to the pandemic put pressure on the theory and practice of our fundamental rights and freedoms. Secondly, they highlighted the significance of the relationship between different levels of government, especially in federal states. This paper discusses the latter issue in the Australian context, where in responding to the pandemic, a new ad hoc intergovernmental forum, the National Cabinet, was created. An analysis of the role played by the National Cabinet during and after the pandemic will be used to reflect upon the federal structure of the Australian Commonwealth, in light of the idea of cooperative federalism; the principle of the separation/division of power(s); and the distinction between the ‘form of state’ and the ‘form of government’.