Faculty of Law Twilight Seminar
Accountability without the Blame Game: Can Australian Federalism have its (Marble) Cake and Eat it?
Presented by:
Dr Jacob Deem
When: Thursday, 19 November 2026
Time: 5.00pm - 6.30pm
Where: Faculty of Law (Building 4), Level 2, Room 2_31 - View on campus map
Closest Parking: General Car Park 2 - View on campus map
Open to the public and all are welcome!
Federalism is often thought to increase government accountability, as different levels of government provide a check and balance against one another. But over the decades, Australian federalism has become increasingly ‘cooperative’ (Painter 1996), with a marbling of the once-clean divisions of responsibility between federal and state governments. While this ‘marble-cake federalism’ has many advantages, the overlaps in responsibilities create space for federal or state governments to blame the other for policy or service delivery failures, hindering accountability. Drawing on original data from the Australian Constitutional Values Surveys, this seminar presents findings from an innovative survey experiment examining the impact of the federalism ‘blame game’ on public trust. More importantly, the seminar explores opportunities to better harness the positive aspects of cooperative federalism a means of providing accountability, while mitigating the blame game.
Introducing Dr Jacob Deem
Dr Jacob Deem is an Assistant Professor at Bond University’s Faculty of Law. His interdisciplinary research combines insights from law, political science and psychology and applies them to public law topics, especially constitutional law, federalism and public trust. His recent publications include journal articles on public understandings of the Australian Constitution and Australian amendment culture, a comparison of organic law in the Iraqi and French constitutions, and a book examining how citizens’ attitudes and political culture contribute to successful federalism in eight countries. Dr Deem was the project lead on the 2021 Australian Constitutional Values Survey and is a Chief Investigator on the $1.2 million Australian Research Council-funded Discovery project “Mapping and Harnessing Public Mistrust” examining how institutions can better harness mistrust (healthy scepticism) to promote citizen confidence in government decision-making. Dr Deem has also worked on several research projects on the use of technology in improving access to legal services for regional Australians and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.