Rewrite the entire Constitution

7. Makes no provision for the election of a diversity of representatives to the two Houses of Parliament, nationally and in the states. It hardly reflects a multicultural society.

8. Makes no provision for the appointment of Cabinet Ministers from outside the legislature, as is the case in most European countries and in the United States. As a result, Governments are frequently lacking in quality and expertise.

9. Does NOT state that the Government derives its authority from the people's sovereignty - the very essence of democracy - and that of a Republic.

10. Does not elaborate on the nature of popular and national sovereignty and does not provide guidance as to how, for instance, economic sovereignty is to be safeguarded and promoted in a globalised world.

11. Is embedded in several constitutional conventions (usages), which are open to a variety of interpretations. Conventions should ALL be codified for them to be widely accepted.

12. Parliamentary democracy, often praised in Australia as a positive constitutional feature, is in fact NOT protected in the Constitution.

13. The position of women and the issues of equality between the sexes and of gender in Australian society is not addressed anywhere in the Constitution.

14. Very few people are familiar with the Constitution. Most who study it find it a seriously flawed, archaic document and don't understand why we still have it. Most people have no sense of ownership of it.

15. It is practically impossible to amend the Constitution, due to the provisions of Section 128, the two-party system and the fact that only politicians can initiate constitutional amendments.

16. Many leaders in the corporate sector of Australia are rightly very disenchanted with this Constitution. The Corporation Power in Section 51 is, in practice, used mainly in respect of foreign corporations (with a few exceptions). The states regulate corporate affairs, with sometimes major differences between them, a costly and frustrating situation.

17. Neither the Constitution nor the Commonwealth Electoral Act, 1918 nor the Electoral Act of 1924 in reality provide for democratic elections.

18. The Constitution provides no express guarantee of a universal franchise.

THEREFORE, the time has come to give the often largely ineffectual piecemeal tinkering away. Rewriting the Constitution sounds like a major task, it is often said to be "impossible". Even if many would agree that this would be desirable how could that possibly be achieved?

First of all, the public debate has to be started. The media could play a major role here but have done very, very little about that to date. But there is more.

I think this is where the Governor-General could play a significant role. Although in practice this person performs largely symbolic tasks – by Convention – constitutionally the Governor-General could adopt the role of impasse breaker even in conjunction with the Queen of Australia. A black letter reading of the Constitution suggests that the powerful General Cosgrove could appoint a progressive committee of experts, excluding serving politicians, to draft a new Constitution for Australia, even a Republican Constitution! And this could be presented to the voters in term of a Section 128 amendment of the existing Constitution.