For Queen or country

The British Columbia Government established a citizen’s assembly consisting of one man and one woman drawn from each electoral district and two indigenous members.

The assembly participants were chosen at random by the electoral commission.

This eliminated the politicking that accompanied the election and selection of delegates at the 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention, which determined the republican model put at the 1999 referendum.

The British Columbia citizen’s assembly reached a consensus on a new electoral system after months of hearings, meetings and deliberations. Such a process could easily be adopted by Australia for the next republic debate.

It could, for example, be an initiative of the Council of Australian Governments, the meeting of the Commonwealth, the states and the territories. Having the states and territories involved in the republican debate in a formal way is important because each jurisdiction's constitutional arrangements are altered by the move to a republic.

A random selection process along the lines of the British Columbia experience could choose say 300 delegates: a man and a woman from each federal electorate. This, along with Aboriginal representatives and co-chairs appointed by COAG, would provide for a truly representative democratic exercise.

The role of a Republic Deliberative Assembly would be to deal with fundamental questions such as whether or not there ought to be a plebiscite and then a referendum, or simply a referendum.

The Deliberative Assembly would determine whether or not one republican model, a number and the alternative of maintaining the status quo, would be put to the Australian people in a vote.

Importantly, the decisions that emanate from the Republic Deliberative Assembly's deliberations would be binding on the Commonwealth, state and territory governments.

In short, it is the Australian people who would be deciding the what, when and how of constitutional reform, not the Australian Parliament.

A deliberative democracy approach to an Australian republic not only provides a mechanism to reinvigorate our democracy but it lessens the opportunity for opportunist scare campaigns and division. Let's try it.