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  Issue No 34 Official Organ of LaborNet 08 October 1999  

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Republic

The Referendum: A Spot of Reading


John Passant looks a the propaganda passing as information in the lead-up to the referendum.

I'll admit it. I've read the whole of the referendum pamphlet.

And I'm worried. The yes case is deceptively well written. Wrong, but well written.

Unfortunately the no case looks like it was developed by a group of conspiracy theorists. You know the type. THEY WRITE EVERYTHING IN CAPITALS, WITH LOTS OF EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!

Since I made up my mind months ago to reject the republic of the rich, the fact that the argument against the republic is poorly put in the referendum pamphlet is not going to change my vote.

The no position is disadvantaged because it is an amalgam of opposing political forces, ranging from reactionaries to revolutionaries. So the overall message is contradictory. Vote no to protect the monarchy and for a directly elected President.

However the yes case is disadvantaged because it is an amalgam of similar political forces - the rich and their two political parties the Liberals and the ALP. Vote yes for a fake republic.

The Yes/No Referendum pamphlet contains not just the arguments for and against the republic and the preamble. It also has the proposed Constitutional changes if we vote for a republic on November 6.

It's been a long time since I read the Constitution. It was interesting to re-acquaint myself with our founding document, a document so representative of the Australian people that the maximum turn out in any State for the Federation referendums was 46 per cent.

A massive 46 per cent! Federation must have been even more irrelevant and boring for most people then than the Republic debate is now.

So, what is it that the ARM's presidency would do to our Constitution? It starts out simply enough. Cross out the Governor-General, or Queen, or both, and substitute the resident.

But then comes the part about the President. Most people reading this article would know, I hope, that the President will be appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth Parliament.

This appointed model expresses the fear of the men and women of property about possible challenges to their rule. That's good reason to reject it.

There are certain qualifications a person has to satisfy to become President. The main one is that the President has to be an Australian citizen. No-one has satisfactorily explained to me why this is necessary.

It's crass jingoism to imagine that someone born here or naturalised is somehow better qualified than other residents, or even non-residents, to open schools and fetes, sign legislation on command and sack uppity Labor Governments.

Would Nelson Mandela have made a worse President of Australia than John Kerr?

There are also some disqualifications. The President cannot be, at the time the Prime Minister's motion is moved and affirmed, a parliamentarian. They also can't be a member of a political party.

What is this about? The on-going crisis of capitalism and the dominance of economic rationalism among politicians of the left and right has produced a ground swell of distrust, even hatred, of politicians among ordinary people.

There is anger without focus. It's why, as the recent Victorian election results show, the only electoral certainty is uncertainty.

Excluding serving politicians and members of political parties panders to what the Turnbulls of the world think is our hatred of politicians. It's a political ploy which the ARM believes will bolster the appointed model's chance of success in November.

It shows that the ARM doesn't understand ordinary people. Sure, we despise our politicians for making us work harder for less, for closing hospitals and schools and for watching on while employers restructure our jobs away. But that does not, or should not, translate into a blanket presidential proscription on politicians and members of political parties.

In any event, I don't think the restriction is serious. It will be easy to avoid.

After an examination by the Presidential vetting committee, (set up to make sure the person nominated for President will be acceptable to the rich and powerful), Howard and Beazley could agree that Tim Fischer would be a good President.

Before the Prime Minister moves in Parliament, with Kim Beazley's support, that Tim Fischer be affirmed as President, Fischer resigns from Parliament and the National Party.

Fischer is no longer a member of Parliament or a political party. He is eligible to be appointed President. The fact that he is the archetypal politician, a man whose very essence has been molded by his many years as a Parliamentarian and National Party member is irrelevant under the appointed model. We get a politician in all but name. So why have the exclusion?

Something else worries me about this restriction on politicians and party members.

We have a plethora of bodies, tribunals and commissions to battle against discrimination. And there, at the centre of our constitution, what is the ARM proposing we do? Enshrine political discrimination.

Then there are Kerr's cudgels, the reserve powers. These are the undefined powers the unelected Governor-General illegedly has which enable him or her to sack democratically elected left-wing Governments.

The reserve powers exist politically because the Labor Party in 1975 would not mobilise workers against the Constitutional coup. From a legal point of view these powers may not exist because Whitlam did not test the issue in Court.

But if we vote yes on November 6 we will entrench these vague reserve powers in our Constitution. New section 59 of the Constitution will say that the President may exercise a power that was a reserve power of the Governor-General in accordance with the constitutional conventions relating to the exercise of that power.

What reserve powers? What constitutional conventions? Nothing is spelt out.

That the Labor Party supports this abomination is an indication of its degeneration. It means a future John Kerr can sack a future Gough Whitlam.

Is this what we really want? Surely the result should have been the abolition of the reserve powers, not concreting them into our Constitution? It's another reason to vote no.

The essence of the monarchy in feudal times was the exercise of absolute power without democratic restraint. The essence of the ARM's presidency is the possibility of the exercise of absolute power overriding the democratic choice of the Australian people.

If we are, as the ARM proposes, to give the President such vague yet absolute power, should the President not be wlected so that the exercise of that power, if it occurs, flows directly from the Australian people themselves?


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*   Why can't republicans write interesting, entertaining pieces like this?

*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 34 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: A Crack to the Skull
Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Nick Lewocki took on the Carr Government�s radical rail refrom agenda and walked away a winner. He looks back on the week the trains stood still.
*
*  Economics: Green Backs and Dirty Dollars
Paul Ehlrich says the real culprit behind the environmental crisis isn't so much the huge numbers of people in the world or conspicuous over-consumption in the West but an economic system that confuses price with cost.
*
*  Unions: Tally Ho!
A landmark meat industry decision might not have the impact the reith cheer-squad hopes for.
*
*  History: The Western Express
West Australian historians are undertaking a project to chronicle that state's rich rail history.
*
*  Republic: The Referendum: A Spot of Reading
John Passant looks a the propaganda passing as information in the lead-up to the referendum.
*
*  Indigenous: Australia Snubs Nose at the UN
The United Nations General Assembly will be told that Australia has breached an international convention on racial discrimination that Malcolm Fraser�s Government ratified 24 years ago.
*
*  International: Desert Flashpoint
The United Nations has confirmed that demonstrations were suppressed in Western Sahara last month.
*
*  Review: Temper Democratic
Humphrey McQueen has been a fearless critic of received opinions across a range of subjects for many years, and as a consequence has been criticised or more often ignored in debates in Australia.
*
*  Satire: Tax Cuts Come in the Nick of Time for Struggling Packers
Welfare groups have called upon on the Federal Government to bring forward the date of proposed capital gains tax cuts.
*
*  Labour Review: What's New in the Information Centre
Read the latest issue of Labour Review, a resource for union officials and students.
*

News
»  Shaw Slams Rio Tinto Decision
*
»  Conference Sizzles - Now for the Meat
*
»  Cabinet Capers in the Dark Tower
*
»  Anger at Imported Beds for Games Village
*
»  Cowboy Behaviour at the Equestrian Centre
*
»  Wanted: Hardened Hacks with Hearts
*
»  Security Employers Break Law in West
*
»  Confronting Images on Display
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»  Rooting and Rocking for the Republic
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»  Organiser of the Year to be Announced November
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»  Fears for Timorese Who Got Out
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Columns
»  Guest Report
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Piers Watch
*

Letters to the editor
»  Off With Their Funds!
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»  At the Child Care Coalface
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»  Walsh Bay Development Backed
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