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Stephen Mayne, John Thwaites, Fran Bailey, OurCommunity.com.au, CC
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Cr Cathy Oke, City of Melbourne
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“Rio Plus 20 Agenda”
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Crikey, House of Representatives, Adam Bandt MP, Your question
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“The People's Question”
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Campbell Newman
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“The Queensland Agenda”
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Andrew Demetriou, Amanda Vanstone, Charlie Pickering
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“The Australian Republic”
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Anna Bligh
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“The Queensland Agenda - Part 1”
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Prof. Noam Chomsky, Deakin University
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666 ABC Canberra, UC, Canberra Refugee Support, Julie Posetti
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“Reporting Refugees”
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John Merritt, EPA
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“EPA Victoria”
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Robert Manne, The Quarterly Essay
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“Bad News”
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Andrew Demetriou, Kevin Sheedy, Matthew Richardson
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The Climate Agenda, Michael Bachelard, Misha Schubert, Deborah Gough
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You?, Greg Hywood, Mark Scott, Sophie Black
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“Australian Media Leaders”
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Kelly O’Dwyer, Deb O’Neill , Larissa Waters
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“Women in Politics”
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David Thodey
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“Telstra CEO David Thodey”
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The Hon. Martin Dixon MP, Vic SRC
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“Victorian Education Minister”
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Margaret Simons, Anna Krien, Tim Soutphommasane
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Malcolm Fraser
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“Renewing Democracy”
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Q&A
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“Q&A - After The Budget - May 16th”
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The Australian Republic
Some say an Australian Republic is the final step in a journey towards independence and nationhood for our country. It will have a resident Australian citizen as Head of State, chosen through a process that reflects Australian values such as equality, fairness and democracy.
If you are interested in the role of a future Australian Head of State, OurSay is offering you the opportunity to ask the big questions about what it means for Australia to one day become a Republic.
Working with the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) the top 5 questions on OurSay will be discussed by the featured panelists at the ARM Victorian Republican Conference held at Deakin University (Melbourne Campus) on Saturday 4th February 2012. You can download a flyer for the event here.
The Question
What is the simplest model of Republic? Instead of a President, can we keep the Governor-General as a Head of State? How do we assess which model best suits our governance needs, keeps total costs of government down, and gives our nation the symbols, rituals and practices that best reflect and honour us as a people? How do the different models of republic objectively compare?
The simplest way to achieve a republic would be to change the method of appointment of the Governor-General and state governors to a 2/3 majority vote of both houses of Parliament. Anything more complex than that will probably fail.
I believe the Westminster parliamentary system is more flexible and responsive than a US type republic. As the Queen is now a symbolic figurehead , the change to a different head of state could be a minimalist but symbolicly important change for our multicultural society , and importantly perhaps most likely the most likely to clear the referendum hurdles. Selection of ther new head of state and clarification of the role are the issues that the last attempt ran into difficulty on. The change to a republic should not be represented as improving our democratic system - just an important piece of modernisation or symbolism.
Brendan, as an anti-republican but not a passionate monarchist, I fall into the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' school of governance. I was a republican as a student 50 years ago, but I grew up. I am pleased we have a Queen, delighted she lives thousands of kilometres away, and dread the consequences of having both a President and a Prime Minister vieing for top dog. As Great Britain's 62 million people get by with one monarch, why do we need one Governor per 3 million of us? Are we twenty times harder to rule? We are no longer seperate colonies; dump the six State imperial reps, demote the Governor-General to Governor (paid for by the Queen). Simple, easy, it would maintain traditional links and still save $squillions. And keep our flag, too. Oh, and present Governor-General Quentin Bryce needs to pull her head in and remember who she represents, and it's not Australians.
I think the Queen is a very good role model for what we would want for the role of Head of state. We only need to have a way of periodically electing Australians to fill the role. We could replace the Queen in our system of Government with an Australian and keep everything else as it is - including a Governor-General appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister by the head of state. The head of state would then have the functions and powers of the Queen. They would not be able to exercise the reserve powers like the Governor-General. The ARM is proposing replacing both the Queen and the Governor-General with the one head of state. This is a major structural change to Executive Government and it would require a major rewrite of the Constitution – as in deed the model for the referendum in 1999 did. There is a huge difference between the framework that the ARM is proposing and a framework that replaces the Queen only with a Australian head of state.