Time for a change
If the right model emerges, I will be shouting Republic! Republic!
Albert Einstein’s famous line: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I believe that this statement is particularly poignant at this point of time in our nation’s history. It has never been as applicable as it has to Australia throughout these past two years as we have endured this covid-19 crisis.
This was brought fully into context when in the same week Melbourne obtained the record as the most locked-down city on the globe over the past two years, (despite having one of the lowest covid-19 case and death rates by world standards) we also recording record a record 1438 daily cases at the time of writing of this article. This will no doubt get even worse.
I could make this article about Dan Andrew’s Chutzpah and compare his smug comments about the Sydney and New South Wales situation when he first called the seven day snap lockdown (that now has lasted for fifty-eight days) and compare it to where he has Victoria at this time, but that would be ignoring the greater problem that I believe is facing this nation.
That problem is our constitution and our federation of states. This has been brought sharply into focus ever since Scott Morrison announced a National Cabinet of Federal and State leaders to deal with the crisis. How anybody could think that to have a group of nine different leaders combined with nine different Chief Health Officers along with Nine Different Health Departments who are all taking nine different approaches to be enforced by nine different police forces was ever a good idea is beyond me.
How Morrison ever got this concept through his federal government’s national cabinet is as mystifying as any conspiracy theory that they so like to demonise. What were they thinking?
This course of action could only have been decided upon to enable Morrison and the Federal government to be in a position to not carry the whole blame if anything went wrong with their handling of the covid-19 virus crisis. This was fragility was probably magnified after the heat Morrison took from the states, their Premiers and the media throughout the bushfire tragedy of early 2020. With covid-19 landing on their doorstep through express delivery from Wuhan China, the giant intellects within the federal Liberal party machinery obviously decided that if they were to be taken down for their handling of the covid-19 response they would make sure the states and premiers would go down with them. If they made sure the blame could be spread then there would be less chance of all the arrows being fired in their direction as happened during the bushfires and their aftermath.
Considering they were going to need the cooperation of the states to deliver that covid-19 response it politically made sense, but the approach lacked integrity, lacked substance and most importantly lacked real leadership. It was a strategy that jettisoned the ability to be decisive and to change direction when and where required as the virus evolved and events on the ground changed.
Instead of having to convince a group of ministers around one cabinet table to alter course or policy Morrison now had nine groups of ministers, their nine chief health officers, a myriad of health bureaucrats within those health departments to contend with. Worse he had a salivating media now armed with a smorgasbord of experts of varying degrees of Knowledge to choose from to highlight the narrative of their desire.
If things didn’t go smoothly which was a high probability when dealing with something a volatile as a virus of pandemic proportions, then you had a disaster on your hands waiting to explode. So it did and so here we find ourselves today, with all our governments and opposition parties aligned into one manic strategy of dealing with a virus that is constantly mutating, or so we are told. That strategy was to jab every Australian shoulder with a vaccine designed to predominately deal with the first strain of the virus. To make matters worse, those same vaccines have not been through the rigorous process normally required of new vaccines released to the public, especially ones implementing a new technology in vaccine development and production. So new and untested are these vaccines that the companies providing them needed to be provided with indemnity beforehand to guard against any adverse reactions to them as a result of their use. This included death.
If you somehow think that is acceptable then ask yourself would you go into a car yard and allow a car salesman to sell you a car that has never been road-tested, never been safety tested, is running on a technology that has never been used before and the car’s manufacturer wouldn’t stand by their product if anything went wrong as a result of their manufacture of that car? If you did buy it you would be a gullible fool and you would most likely be buying a lemon.
Ladies and Gentlemen that’s what our national cabinet has sold you, a rotten smelly lemon.
To make matters worse products that have a proven track record, have proven to be safe and effective and are extremely affordable were taken off the market before you had a chance to buy.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is a phrase not written in the Bible but is an old English proverb that has a biblical message. Considering how Morrison likes to lean on the Christian faith when it’s convenient maybe he should reflect on this proverb a little. What probably seemed like a good idea at the time, is looking more likely by the day to see him lose the Prime Ministership and government.
Another great old expression is “The Emperor has no clothes” which is used to describe a situation in which people are afraid to criticize something or someone because the perceived wisdom of the masses is that the thing or person is good or important.
In this case that “thing” has been cleverly portrayed as the science and if you are opposed to it you are anti-science, a conspiracy theorist and an anti-vaxxer. These adjectives are used every day at press conferences, on our news feed, through our social media, in print media and even in our parliaments. It’s everywhere.
So here we are, and why? Because Scott Morrison and his federal cabinet abdicated their responsibility to lead this nation. They effectively ignored the constitution and deferred to the States for fear of political fallout. In simple terms they were cowards. A virus was always going to cross international and state borders, this was never a state problem, it was always a federal one that had the potential to create some political issues between the states and federal government.
Scott Morrison, being the political shrinking violet that he is chose to dodge the fight and implicate and embed the states into the solution. It will be nigh impossible to remove them now.
Considering this, you would hope in this situation, now that we had nine opposition parties amongst our nine parliaments and seven different governors amongst our State and federal parliaments that there would be some substantial voices to speak out against the chaos and destruction that has been inflicted upon the liberties and freedoms of everyday Australian citizens. Sadly outside a few courageous individuals who don’t have the power to enforce some change of thinking, the voices of those that have that ability have sadly been deafly quiet.
Where have been our governors, our opposition parties and our media been throughout all of this? Where have our legal and academic and human rights institutions been? What about the voice of the worker, our trade unions? Why have bureaucracies morphed into our de facto governments instead of being advisory bodies to our politicians and heads of state? We don’t vote for bureaucrats to lead us in a crisis we vote for politicians, but they seem solely focused on putting themselves into a position of unaccountability where they can throw others under the bus in an attempt to ensure their own survival.
A constitutional monarchy was supposed to have the necessary checks and balances within its framework to stop these sorts of abuses.
If one thing has been clearly demonstrated through these past two years it is that this concept is sadly out of date. It may have been relevant in 1901 when we became a nation, but in these days of mass media both mainstream and social, in these times when passing blame is preferred over leadership, where a person’s social profile status is more important than their integrity and having the courage to stand by one’s values and beliefs, then maybe it’s time to review the very structure we thought emboldened our nation and our way of life.
It’s a pity the Australian Republican Movement is headed by an imbecile like Peter Fitzsimons, a man who likes the sound of his own voice so much he would lock himself in a recording studio just to record it and then put it on playback until he was satisfied which would only be when he is sleeping. He probably has been doing this for the past two years as he has certainly missed a golden opportunity to push the republican cause.
These past two years in my mind have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that our system of a federation of states is broken and sadly ensures to divide us a nation rather than to unite us, it ensures imbeciles are elevated to roles beyond which they are capable of performing, it ensures our national debt not only continues to grow but implode, it ensures corruption takes precedence over good governance, it ensures the national interest is jettisoned for petty state squabbles and worst of all it ensures the oppression of the rights, liberties and freedoms of citizens of this nation.
Some may argue that it is not the system, but rather the people within the system that are responsible for its failure. I’d argue if that system allowed such people to elevate themselves within a position of influence within that system, then that system to me is fundamentally flawed.
Recently I became a member of the Liberal Democrats, a party whose policy platform includes the value of small government. Yet this week John Ruddick, David Limbrick and Tim Quilty, men whom I greatly admire and respect, all came out with arguments of retaining state government and in some cases generating even more states. Their arguments were that government in this country has become too centralised, that we need more representation at a more local level.
In other words, more states and more governments not less. The rationale for this would be that states would be given revenue-generating power, in other words, the ability to raise taxes. They then would be able to compete against each other to run better economies and societies in a battle to attract more business and people to their respective states. They also argue that they would be more attuned to their constituent’s issues and looks to resolve them in a more efficient manner.
In doing this power and bureaucracies could be move from our federal government to our state ones. Never mind that no federal government would ever give up any power or taxation ability that they currently have.
Overall my response to this is, “Where have you been for the past two years?”
Haven’t six states and two territories inflicted enough damage upon us as a society, yet you want to form even more?
These opinions then lead me into online debates with others on this subject and I engaged with people who wanted twenty states or even fifty like they have in America, never mind that they have over 330 million people while we have 24 million and many there argue that they are over-governed.
One young gentleman even argued that we should have a state for every historical indigenous tribe. While this may sound great in theory in the real world that would mean a grand total of 500 states and territories. That’s a parliament, a bureaucracy and a likely debt for every one of those 500 states and territories. If that happened we may as well throw our hands up now, surrender to China and get it over and one with.
I want less government in my life, not more, I want less tax in my life, not more, I want less restrictions on my life, not more, I want less corruption in our politics and government, not more, I want more focused eyes and oversight across all areas of government not less, I want far more accountability from our politicians at election time and finally I want more unity and less division amongst Australian themselves.
Bottom line, after these past two years I want the states gone, eliminated, removed and sent packing into the flames of history where I am now of the firm belief they belong. I want a new system of government, a bill of rights and a constitution that will protect Australian citizens instead of ignoring them.
As a conservative, I have leaned towards supporting a constitutional monarchy simply through the old argument of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
So before all of the constitutional monarch supporters dust off their English flags and portraits of Queen Elizabeth and look to come after me, can you first please explain to me where the Queen has been through this crisis while the citizens she is supposed to defend and protect have been so vigorously assaulted by their governments ruling under her crown. Where have her representatives, the governors been? What about the Governor-General?
Can you just imagine what things would have been like under a King Charles as opposed to Queen Elizabeth?
A future King who is right amongst the extinction rebellion fringe and rubs shoulder with Klaus Schwab and his “build back better” gang from the World Economic Forum. We need to find the exit stage right before that ever become a reality.
We have been let down by the constitution and system of government that we have always been assured and we always thought that would protect us, our rights and our way of life. That system has let us down abysmally. It needs reform, in fact in my opinion we need to tear it up and start with a blank sheet.
I, like so many other Australians, have never worried about this before, but I am now of the firm view that Australia desperately needs a bill of rights to defend its citizens. We need smaller government, massively less bureaucracy, more oversight of both politicians and government, and budgets and economies that are streamlined, that is efficient and that will allow investment in nation-building initiatives as opposed to rorts. Any debt incurred will need checks and balances to ensure it’s good debt that helps build national assets and infrastructure while ensuring proper safety for ALL Australians when they need it along with delivering the essential areas of government that every country needs but no more.
At election time I want a large field of high-quality candidates for a small number of positions within our parliament. I want a system that will ensure as far as is practically possible that the best quality candidates are elected and simply don’t fall into parliament due to good fortune and luck through backroom deals over preference voting. We need to find a way to attract the best people possible into our politics and our bureaucracies and to ensure we keep as many of the potential idiots out as we possibly can.
If you think I am being harsh with the idiot comment, then watch any broadcast of our parliaments in action and I will rest my case on the evidence that these broadcasts provide. There are idiots strewn within our parliaments. Some would even describe a few of them as bogans, but even worse plenty of them are corrupt.
So rather than just whine about our system, I thought I would put up some proposals for some broad strokes of what I believe would be a decent system. To me, the following has to be included in any new blueprint for a constitutional republic.
- The removal of all state governments.
- The crystal clear outlining of the duties and responsibilities of Local Governments.
- The alignments of federal electorates to local governments to ensure connection between constituents and their elected representatives.
- The establishment of a bill of rights
- Instead of states, replace them with a minister of state. In other words, just as you have a department of Trade you would have a Ministry of state for each of the current states and territories.
- Each of those ministries would have a minister appointed to them to sit around the National cabinet table of government.
- The formation of established ministries within the constitution could only be changed by a referendum. Sub ministries could be formed but under strict guidelines and for limited terms only to ensure governments don’t become too large.
- The removal of all emergency powers and legislation to be reviewed, redrafted and put to the people for approval.
- Any extension of State of Emergency periods would need to be approved again by a referendum. No more backroom deals to keep a whole population subdued and locked down for long periods.
- The removal of preferential voting to be replaced by the first past the post system. Too many unworthy candidates have been elected on a ridiculous amount of votes due to the preferential system.
- The removal of compulsory voting to be replaced by voluntary voting. We either believe in individual freedoms or we don’t, I would rather people vote who put some proper consideration into that privilege rather than voting to avoid a fine.
- A pledge of allegiance to be introduced to all government institutions. Politicians, education, military, police, military, bureaucrats would all have to take this pledge with the strictest of punishments for those who commit treason when they act in another nation or organisations interests before that of our own.
- Three years terms with recall elections introduced.
- Our head of State whether that position is called a President of Prime Minster MUST be elected by a popular vote as opposed to a bunch of politicians working out backroom deals to get a preferred candidate into that position.
- State borders to remain, but through our new bill of rights to never be closed again to our country’s citizens.
- One flag of national unity that represents ALL Australians. No more division, our governments should represent and serve all of our people living in this country, not just a privileged few. I know it bothers others but I won’t lose sleep whether our current flag remains or is changed, as long it remains as beautiful as the current one and unifies our nation.
- There needs to be a house of review such as the senate, but I would like to see reform where it begins to operate as it was originally intended, in other words as a house of review. On too many occasions instead of reviewing legislation from the lower house in the national interest, legislation is amended or rejected along political lines and through backroom deals and favours. Our country cannot afford for that to continue. How to make those appointments for a house of review to ensure no political affiliation or corruption is another matter worthy of considered deliberation.
After centuries of trial and error from republics and democracies across the globe, our goal should be to pick and choose from the best of them, while including our own concepts. If we can do that we would unite this country and deliver one of the greatest and most free democracies the world has seen.
These are just ideas but considering the performance of our governments to this point, especially over the past two years, there is no harm to take a first step at putting forward proposals.
We will continue to do this through this publication and will add thoughts and proposals we believe to be worthy of inclusion on a regular basis through this website and associated articles. We encourage our readers and followers to feel free to send us your thoughts and ideas for consideration and inclusion.
What we do reject is any concept of larger government, more bureaucracy, move government debt, more politicians and bureaucrats imposing themselves upon our lives and more opportunity for excess and corruption. We also reject any efforts to address other global issues before those of this country. Any new constitution needs to be designed and implemented with this nation and this nations citizens best interests at the forefront of its ideals.
So there it is a first-up effort on a few concepts about a new constitution and structure that could serve our nation in a far better manner. I believe I have already achieved far more than Peter Fitzsimons has done in all of his term as head of the Australian Republican movement through this one article. My only word of caution is as broken as what our current system may be is that there must be no movement to replace it hastily. This can only be done when we have a model that is superior and one that will be embraced and supported as much by the common person as our elites who considered this reform a toy for them to play with alone.
These proposals will have holes shot through them, of that I have no doubt, but we have been lectured for two years to listen to the science, so I for one will take my lead from one of the greatest scientists to have ever lived and I will look to not repeat the same actions over and again when it clearly has failed us so badly when we needed it the most.
