Why not just take a random name from the electoral roll every five years or so and appoint them as HoS?

It would be utterly democratic and would be much cheaper to conduct than an election campaign every few years.

That is a fantastic suggestion! It is what we should be doing now. Perhaps we should have a referendum to endorse it at the coming Federal election.

I doubt that Charles III will be the disaster everyone thinks he is. By getting out of bed each day and maintaining a modicum of dignity, he’ll surprise people for how well he grows into the role, and then of course William V – well, forget about it.

I’m a republican too but am not quite sure what form that will or should take, and drumming my fingers while waiting for an old lady in a far country to die is ghoulish, to say the least. You can’t claim that the Queen is irrelevant while her every breath, every heartbeat is so obviously central to this whole issue.

I just can’t work up any interest in whatever it is a republic entails. Will this reduce GHGs? Contribute to global equity? Local equity? Improve any public service? It’s hard to see.

By that standard Fran, almost any action of government should arouse deep apathy within you and across the community. The 1975 Dismissal, floating the dollar, September 11, the election of Stephen Fielding to the Senate: you name it, don’t trouble Fran Barlow except on The Big Issues.

Could you explain why you think that some person half a world away who has a conflict of interest would be any better?

Britain and Australia are now much much further apart than in 1901. At that time, the interests of Australia and Great Britain were aligned.

In this day and age, our interests may well diverge in any number of cases. For example, if the Q or PCharles visit another country to help sell that country’s goods (and don’t tell me they are not part of the soft sell), whose interest are they looking after, Britain’s or ours?

The head of one country being the head of another is just a classic case of conflict of interest that needs to be ended.

Hi Katz,

You may abominate the reserve powers, but they exist and no amount of wishful thinking will get rid of them. Hence they should be exercised in the same way as under the existing constitution. RobV is advocating no change to exercise the reserve powers. Your argument for change is based on what happens in Germany, and its so weird.

Hi David Latimer,

Get back to me when you can read for meaning.

Perhaps we can have the threshold referendum now, with the operative date to be when her Madge leaves the throne. Plenty of time then for argument about the type of model. If we actually wait till she leaves, it could get messy (grief over her passing, maybe, lack of time to argue alternatives might make it all too hard).

Do the question now, operative date in the future, wedge the coalition with it, make it simultaneous with the election.

whitefrankblack @ 14

Caesar is a good title, and with the alternatives Kaiser, Cisar, Csar – so multicultural as well. *snort*

You may abominate the reserve powers, but they exist and no amount of wishful thinking will get rid of them. Hence they should be exercised in the same way as under the existing constitution. RobV is advocating no change to exercise the reserve powers. Your argument for change is based on what happens in Germany, and its so weird. Don’t you know why the Governor-General rarely exercises the reserve powers?

You say no the Rob’s statement that the reserve powers can be used only in exceptional circumstances. Read McGarvie’s book to find out why Rob is correct.

And then you write about an elected monarch exercising reserve powers, and where did that come from?

He is talking about a elected Head of State who does not exercise reserve powers – and he has made it work.

One of the main points to come out of this for me is that while the Governor-General acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the times when the reserve powers were used were times when the Governor-General had no confidence in the advice that the Prime Minister provided or would have provided if he wasn’t sacked. That would have been even if the relevant head of government had control of the house. There was in both cases a serious financial crisis and the state Governor and Governor-General judged that the Premier and PM were not capable of resolving the crisis. The exercise of the reserve powers resulted with a general election in both cases.

Review our discussion.

This is what I’ve been saying all along.

I’m glad you’ve come around to my point of view.

Now consider whether you want an elected monarch also to have these powers.

In regard to reserve powers in general, it is true that the post WWII German constitution abolished them in the light of Weimar Germany’s disastrous experience of Article 48.

However, in the tumultuous events of 1968, the political classes of Germany decided to give reserve powers back to an elected president. So much for learning from history.

I abominate reserve powers.

One of the main points to come out of this for me is that while the Governor-General acts on the advice of the Prime Minister, the times when the reserve powers were used were times when the Governor-General had no confidence in the advice that the Prime Minister provided or would have provided if he wasn’t sacked. That would have been even if the relevant head of government had control of the house. There was in both cases a serious financial crisis and the state Governor and Governor-General judged that the Premier and PM were not capable of resolving the crisis. The exercise of the reserve powers resulted with a general election in both cases.

Review our discussion.

This is what I’ve been saying all along.

I’m glad you’ve come around to my point of view.

Now consider whether you want an elected monarch also to have these powers.

In regard to reserve powers in general, it is true that the post WWII German constitution abolished them in the light of Weimar Germany’s disastrous experience of Article 48.

However, in the tumultuous events of 1968, the political classes of Germany decided to give reserve powers back to an elected president. So much for learning from history.

I abominate reserve powers.