TOPIC:

DD 5 Priministers in 9 years is nothing to do with our political system.Thats just the major party's making bad decisions and showing bad judgement . That line stolen from TheDon.
A republic will mean sometime in the future our nation will be sucked up by a region or religion.It will also make public office less accountable.

swan 42: there was a proposal to set up a republic with an elected President, people fighting for it very stronglly indeed. As you would be aware, Swan 42, it was defeatted at the constitutional convention by a combination of the Monarchists and Turnbull's lot.

gtr: just to illustrate your point; Canada, NZ, and the UK have all had PMS whom have rulled for the better part of ten years in recent history.

Ark I heard them talking about the NZ PM who just pulled the pin.Hes been through 5 AU Pm,s in his time.
Since Howard was shown the door the AU pms have been bad selections.Rudd,Gillard.Abbot and Turnbull.Still believe Rudd was unlucky shafted by his party.And then begged to come back when they where heading for an election smashing.
I thought he done ok 2nd time around but was just to far behind when he took over.

Grassy where only a population of 25 Million.The Australian Government has done well to secure the borders.Sometime in the future the Australian flood Gates will reopen.
Did you hear Dick Smith talk the other day.He believes we will be swamped at some stage.He also believes there's already to many people in Aust and we can no longer sustain our standard of living.He also spoke about the 30 million Americans on food parcels.10% of there population.

Grassy i was told an amazing story by a man from Afganistan today.He was 12 years old in 1979 when the Soviet Union invaded Afganistan.Within a few weeks of the invasion he was a soldier at 12 fighting for the Majahideen against theSoviets.
In 1989 when the Soviets pulled out they had had enough by that point.The Majhideen started fighting amongst them selves in the power vaccum for control.The Talaban then took over apart from the Northern Alliance who recieved plenty of equiptment of Russia,Iran and India.Then they folded after the Talaban where booted out by the Americans.That crazy place just keeps going around in circles.You cant blame an Afgan for hopping on a leaky boat to get out of that mad house country.

swan42 wrote: Let me point out that the current queen has absolutely no qualifications other than the facts that she has born before her sister and had no brothers.

There was never a proposal to adopt a republican system similar the USA or France.

As for the suggestion that "a benign friendly presence/influence" is accurate giver her representative sacked a DEMOCRATICALLY elected Federal Australian Government. Also, glad to see that Bazza thinks that the Australian Senate is working well.

Further I would point out that according to the latest ABS statistics the leading religion in Australia is one that is STRICTLY prohibited from ever occupying the position of King or Queen of Australia.

Firstly, what qualifications do most pollies have bar winning dodgy pre selection from increasingly shrinking political parties.

and I would dispute your ill informed assertion in any case, the fact is an heir apparent the Queen received lengthy instructions on Constitutional Law from the best Legal minds in the Commonwealth as well as other topics, on top of that she was surrounded by literally generations of experience and since taking on the job would be more knowledgeable than most politicians.

The younger generation all have university qualifications as well as high level officer military training.

In any case, they have little to do with the day to day activities here, that is the GGs job and we pick who we want for that job.

Its an ideal system , The Queen basically costs us nothing bar a few rare trips from time to time, people like her, she is not political and the historical links with the military and tradition are priceless. Not to mention the other work Family members do , ie, Invictus Games with Price Harry etc.

I'm not sure where you get the idea about some not wanting a US or French system , one of the biggest issues dividing the republican numpties was the model, and the direct election mob that cracked a sad after losing out at the multi million dollar wankfest the Convention , they wanted a US style direct election.

Make no mistake a president would turn into a political appointment, almost certainly a ex pollie or current one , automatically making them a divisive figure along party political lines. Half the people would hate them and half like them - All you would do is lose a lot and gain SFA with a republic.

Currently the monarch cannot be Catholic, this is because of her status in the Church of England as its head, that title has no bearing here in Australia, however I do agree that the prohibition on Catholics holding the Crown should be lifted, I think this is close to happening as recently the prohibition on marriage was abolished.

gtrxuone wrote: DD 5 Priministers in 9 years is nothing to do with our political system.Thats just the major party's making bad decisions and showing bad judgement . That line stolen from TheDon.
A republic will mean sometime in the future our nation will be sucked up by a region or religion.It will also make public office less accountable.

We have a collegiate cabinet system , we do not vote for a PM and never have done, we vote for our local MP, its up to the party to select ministers including the PM as they se fit from their caucus, it can be a strength in that bad PMs are disposed of rather than being stuck there for 4 yrs. If we go to a republic it could be far harder depending on the model selected, have a look at the trouble South Korea is having getting rid of their President.

gtr: Your are right -- together with other people whom have pointted out -- there is nothing wrong with our institutions. You can see this easily in France's history, a history dotted with absolute monarchy, two empires, the French State under Petain and five republics. The fourth republic, which was modelled on our parliamentary democracy, is generally seen as a disaster by historians -- governments falling in quick succession, However, it was not parliamentary democracy which caused the governments to fall, rather it was the inability of cabinets to deal with colonial problems in Vietnam and Algeria. The fifth Republic appears good in comparison not because of an elected President it set up, but simply because, De gaulle stabbed the right in the back -- and some of the left whom supportted French Algeria --- and made peace in Algeria. It is worth keeping in mind that, De Gaulle, hated the colonials in Algeria because they sided with Petain during the second world war.

FMD more talk of an unwanted unnecessary change to a republic!! If it ain't broke (and it isn't) don't fix it. The convention was an obscene waste of money, surely there are more important things that need attention and funding. Australia still has one of the most stable and sustainable political systems in the world, yes there's been a turn over of PM's in the last decade but that's more to do with the abysmal quality of the individuals concerned and the rise of minor parties and independents that are really the only thing that destabilises our system.