Voice to Parliament

Shireen Morris researches, teaches and publishes in constitutional law and constitutional reform, Indigenous constitutional recognition, as well as public law more generally, specialising in the concept of a First Nations constitutional voice. Her research includes work on free speech and the implied freedom political communication, Australian republicanism, Australian monetary sovereignty and challenges of political polarisation, social media and democratic decline.

Shireen was honoured to deliver the recent John Button Oration, making the case for radical centre economic reform in pursuit of true full employment. As Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, which collaborates across political divides to build consensus for innovative reform, Shireen works with a Research Assistant and 6 interns spanning 5 different universities, helping build consensus for a First Nations voice referendum. The Reform Lab works in partnership with Cape York Institute and operates with generous support from foundation donors, Henry and Marcia Pinskier.

Prior to coming to Macquarie Law School, Shireen was a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow at Melbourne Law School, and before that she spent 7 years working at Cape York Institute as the senior adviser on Indigenous constitutional recognition. Shireen completed her PhD at Monash University, with a thesis on Indigenous constitutional recognition through a First Nations constitutional voice - now published as a book, A First Nations Voice in the Australian Constitution, with Hart Publishing. She completed a Juris Doctor (Master of Laws) at Monash and a Bachelor of Arts (English Major) at the University of Melbourne. 

Other books include Radical Heart: Three Stories Make Us One (MUP, 2018), A Rightful Place: A Roadmap to Recognition (Black Inc, 2017) and The Forgotten People: Liberal and Conservative Approaches to Recognising Indigenous Peoples (MUP, 2016). Shireen has also published in journals like the Australian Law Review, Melbourne University Law Review, Sydney Law Review, UNSW Law Journal, Monash University Law Review and the Public Law Review. She regularly contributes opinion pieces to The Australian, The Guardian, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Courier Mail, and ABC Religion and Ethics, and often appears on TV and radio.