Testament 82

Since 1965 every Governor General has been an Australian citizen and 10 of the 11 were Australian born. The Governors General were appointed by the constitutional Head of State, Her Majesty the Queen. Interestingly, unlike the Queen, the Governor General has a 'reserve power' which was used to remove the Whitlam Government. In this regard there may be no advantage in moving from a Constitutional Monarchy to a Republic.

Perhaps an invitation to a royal (no longer in line for the throne of England) to become Constitutional Monarch of Australia would eliminate the need for Governor General and State Governors and be more economic than a Republic. For example, Prince Andrew has two daughters for Australian citizens to court, or there is bachelor Prince Harry already adored by many young Australians and he is now only fifth in line for the English throne.

Regardless of the moves to create a Republic, perhaps, the methods of operation of Parliamentary Government should be examined to see if they to reflect the needs of the 21^st Century? If not, they would require considerable consultation to reflect the true needs and to satisfy all.

The Australian Constitution and Governance

The Federation which was 50 years in the making and the Constitution which was designed over the latter 10 years, was intended to satisfy the wants of 8 British Colonies and eventually included 6 of them (with Western Australia) but not New Zealand and Fiji.

The negotiations had to balance the power of NSW and Victoria as against the smaller colonies. The combined population of the four smaller colonies was slightly more than Victoria's and considerably less than NSW. The approximate population distribution of the original States was NSW (founded 1788) 35.9%, Victoria (founded 1850) 34.2%, Queensland (founded 1859) 13.2%, South Australia (founded 1836) 9.6%, Western Australia (founded 1829) 4.9% and Tasmania (founded 1825) 4.6%. The Northern Territory was in with South Australia and the ACT was part of NSW.

Each State was originally allocated 6 Senators, which was increased to 10 in 1948, NT and ACT were each given 2 Senators in 1975 and the States were increased to 12 Senators in 1984. Every increase was under a Labor Government. The original Senate of 36 is now a Senate of 76. The Original House of Representatives was 75.

The recent population of Australia was estimated at 23,781,200 at June 2015 with a distribution of NSW 33.0%, Victoria 25.0%, Queensland 20.1%, South Australia 7.1%, Western Australia 10.9% and Tasmania 2.2% with NT 1.0% and ACT 1.6%

Federation has now existed longer than any former Colony, which raises a number of questions, including, whether the function of the Senate has not already passed its use-by date in its current form and size.

The Constitution was formulated by British educated politicians mainly from State Legislatures and modelled on the forms of Government they knew and what they thought would be acceptable to the people and the British Crown. Total independence was not achieved until Australia adopted the Statute of Westminster in 1942. This background determined the physical layout of the Parliament and its procedures and staffing

Many changes have occurred in the last 115 years and this opens questions of how much we should retain tradition and how much we should embrace modern technology, particularly in communication and transport?

From 1901 to 1927 The Federal Parliament met in Melbourne and has met in Canberra ever since. In 1901 most States has different railway line gauges necessitating numerous changes of trains at borders, even in 1917 a trip from Perth to Brisbane required 6 changes of train. So many interstate trips were by coastal shipping and local movement by horse and buggy. Motor transport was virtually unknown until 1908 with the T model Ford and as for air transport Qantas wasn't founded until 1920 and Ansett until 1936.