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Crikey, House of Representatives, Adam Bandt MP, Your question
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Andrew Demetriou, Amanda Vanstone, Charlie Pickering
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Prof. Noam Chomsky, Deakin University
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Robert Manne, The Quarterly Essay
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You?, Greg Hywood, Mark Scott, Sophie Black
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Kelly O’Dwyer, Deb O’Neill , Larissa Waters
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The Hon. Martin Dixon MP, Vic SRC
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Margaret Simons, Anna Krien, Tim Soutphommasane
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Malcolm Fraser
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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
Why not adopt my model for an Australian Republic, submitted to the official review called by Paul Keating in 1993? I say that the Prime Minister must be the Head of State, that is there should not be a separate "president" - elected or selected. This overcomes a barrier in the minds of many to a Republic. The Head of State is elected by constituents and chosen by Caucus, keeping the position as long as she/he maintains confidence of peers. In our Republic we should elect one female and one male representative for each seat, guaranteeing gender equality for all time. The unrepresentative swill, the Senate, should be abolished. Why allow Tasmanians 20 times the voting power of NSW electors?
Thanks for the votes, but at least 3 people did not realise that each person has 7 votes and you need to click patiently to check that they are recorded as the page tries to update before you have fired those 7 clicks! So if you come back to have a look you can log in and use up your votes. Viva la Republic!!!
Australia - the Republic - must have a Bill of Rights aligned with the UN Declaration and any amendments to the Constitution or laws to bring it into being should be the top priority of the Labor government. The Bill of Rights must ensure that no State government attempts to curtail those human rights. We would expect no less of our new Attorney General.
The Senate actually tends to reflect the real first preference voting patterns of the entire country, and acts as a balance against the House of Representatives should it go feral. which it did under Howard. The Senate has always had a tendency to keep the government of the day closer to a moderate, cautious, if not conservative approach to towards change. This is helpful, because we always need to be aware that some change needs to be properly considered before implementation as it may be socially significant causing unexpected outcomes.
The Senate is both a problem and a solution. It is designed to protect the interests of the 'smaller' states from the excesses of the 'larger' states. If we didn't have a Senate, WA probably would have left the Commonwealth long ago. I don't think the public would like the State NSW Labor government and its excesses magnified exponentially onto the other states. Pork-barreling would only exist in NSW and maybe Victoria as those two states could probably govern Australia on their own using the House of Reps model. The NT is still a Territory, but it is now the military home base for the Nation. Territorians don't appear to trust the 'liberals' enough to bother with statehood. Should the ACT stay a Territory, become a state or become an outer suburb of Sydney? All the public servants there would vote to feather their own nest and go for Statehood.