Not quite the road to Damascus

I have heard Malcolm Turnbull assert that we are an international laughing stock because "we do not have an Australian as Head of State." Really? I have yet to hear anyone dismiss New Zealand or Canada because the Queen is their Head of State too. This is a line that could only run in a community lacking in self respect and pride.

My conversion became complete when I tried to imagine the ideal constitutional system. We Australians are not a nation of forelock tuggers. At football matches we frequently boo dignitaries. All men are born equal, and that is the way we believe they should be treated. A system of government suited to us would have as few chiefs as possible.

If you are going to cut management you should start at the top. What role does the Queen and her Vice-Regal Representative play? That of umpire. The G-G invariably signs bills into law when they are presented, and only has real power at the change of government. But in most of our affairs we already have an independent umpire of last resort – the courts. When the system evolves from a constitutional monarchy, why replace the Queen with anyone? Why not vest the power to resolve disputes with the High Court? That way not one person, but seven, would make the decision, there would be an open debate of the issues, and the reasons for judgement would be delivered and printed. What a contrast to the last time the reserve powers were used!

The most minimal model of all would be simply to remove the Head of State altogether.

When I run this idea with people I am invariably told that it would violate the doctrine of the separation of powers. Yet it is an open secret amongst Constitutional lawyers that the great strength of the Westminster System is that it has fused the Executive and the Legislature. This separation of powers is a fiction.

Like most of the contributors to this section, my conversion was not sudden, and not without reservations. I believe that we already have a Republic, that it is a cultural artifact in its current form of which we should be proud, and that over time it will and should evolve. But I do not believe that its evolution should lead to any of the Republican models that are on offer today, and when it evolves it should be because an overwhelming majority demand it, not merely to satisfy fashion on the cusp of a new century.