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 Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 7:12 am
Well this is the big question. If we're going to break off with the queen, and muck around with our governments constitution, functions, etc, we need to do something special. It has to be an improvement on what we have. There is no way the Australian people would consider a Republic they did not expressly permit.
That requires many levels of in depth analysis, exploration, and debate. It's risky too, because if the popular choices become controversial, the Republican movement will be dis-unified and fail before the Monarchists, all of whom simply tick the 'no' box.
But what do you think. Should we just remove the Queen and Gov-Gen and call it a day? Should we rewrite the constitution? Add a Statute of Liberty? Change the way we calculate the votes, or even remove compulsory voting? Should we have a Bicameral or Unicameral legislature? Should we grant the territories state rights? Do we grant dual citizens the chance to 'opt-out' of the Republic and not renew their citizenship? After the fact, do we grant dual citizenship?
Symbolically, what is our National Anthem? Our Flag? Do we keep our national colours?
All of these questions (and many many more!) could merit their own threads and readers, given the time and activity I will do exactly that! This is a more general thread however, how do you envision the Republic?
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Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:12 pm
Not very exciting, but I don't believe any radical overhauls are necessary, nor will they be accepted by a significant portion of the Australian populace (particularly those leaning towards the "if it aint broke don't fixt it" argument). Thus I favour the maintenance of bicameral legislature. Essentially all I think needs to be done is the replacement of the Office of the Governor-General with the Office of the President and, of course, the removal of references to the British monarchy within the Constitution.
Anthem and national colours can stay, of course, but the change of flag will be inevitable (though considering its popularity, it won't happen right away).
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2009 2:58 am
I would like to answer your question with an answer, but I can't. The person who, atm holds absolute power, really keeps out of the way.
It seems she didn't even mind us changing the anthem so that God didn't have to save her here (so that's why she rarely visits.....). And for such a lame anthem. 'cept for the girt part. That rocks. I think there is a third verse.
But the old one was much easier to remember.
As long as we never have 'I am, we are, we are all Austrian'
I will become a New Zealander that very moment.
Since I watched 4corners (I think, monday was so long ago) on 'corporate bribery', and how Blair, ratified it, still bent over and touched his toes when push came to shove, I can't seem to trust anyone other than QEII. And I hate saying that. I thought Blair, and also Rudd (and for that matter Obama) were all part of a new breed of pollie. Sadly not it seems.
One thing though, whichever way it rolls, the President must not be able to say anything in any inquiry, not under the oath of office.
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Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 6:46 am
First off we ditch the anthem, its a really sissy sounding national anthem, I mean listen to anthems from other countries and hear how martial and stirring they are, gets the people proud!
Well after flipping the GG and her Maj the political bird, we should rewrite the constitution somewhat to remove the references to the commonwealth and the crown, create a national bill of rights to enshrine in law the rights we have now, and grant state rights to the former territories.
give dual citizens a choice to forfeit their dual citizen status and become Australian citizens, or to forfeit their Australian citizenship and leave, if we leave the commonwealth retaining dual citizenship in my opinion is pointless as we are no longer connected to the UK by any ties of governance. If we become a republic theres no having it both ways in regards to citizenship status, if it remained it would be just one more subtle tie to our old status as part of the commonwealth.
The Union Jack goes immediately from the flag of course, don't ask me what else we should put on there (no boomerangs or kangaroos or wattle or whatever, thats so kitsch) Some sort of strong symbol along the lines of the Eureka flag or the Rising sun like on the army badges, things like that could work.
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