Australia - a broken Federation

At the root of all these shortcomings is a (now) totally inadequate Constitution. It seems inconceivable in 2007 but our Constitution is an old Act of the UK Parliament (a Parliament that, according to the Australia Act 1986, has no jurisdiction in Australia). As an example of how inadequate our Constitution is, consider the Prime Minister, undoubtedly the most powerful figure in our system of governance. Our Constitution makes no mention of a prime minister. That means that not only is there no delineation of the powers of the prime minister; there are also no limitations on the powers of the prime minister.

So what are the desirable attributes?

We need a Constitution that is the basic law of our society: a Constitution that establishes a simple system of governance that is accountable and responsive to the needs of the people.

We need a "round table" parliamentary system in which frank and serious debate is used to devise the best solutions to our problems. We need only one law-making parliament, overseen by a head of state who is an Australian citizen, who is not only our national leader with a ceremonial role, but who is an integral part of our system of governance. This National Parliament, as well as being the only law-making parliament, should also be the sole taxing authority and should be responsible for policy on all issues that have an affect across the nation.

In addition, we need a series of "close to the people" institutions to deliver public services. These institutions should be semi-autonomous in that the Constitution should guarantee not only their existence but should also guarantee them a fixed proportion of national revenue. These “local” or “regional” governments (or “councils”) should be constrained in their budget only by national policy and the needs and aspirations of the constituents of their region.

It is essential in any new system that governments and politicians should be accountable to their constituents. This could be achieved by having small, single member electorates, by daily recording and publishing how each politician votes on every issue and by giving the people power to recall unsatisfactory representatives and hold a new election.

Finally, we need a justice system in which the letter of the law is secondary to the pursuit of truth and justice.

How do we get it?

To achieve these radical changes we need a new Constitution. A new Constitution must be drawn up by the people (NOT by politicians or lawyers). It is the people who should decide how we shall be governed.

There are several organisations working on a new Constitution, see for example www.national-renewal.org.au.

In resolving these complex issues it is important not to get bogged down worrying about the transition from the way we do things now to a new and better way of doing things. First we must establish what it is we want. That is, we should decide the sort of society and the system of governance we would like “if only we could start from scratch”. When that is agreed, then we can worry about how we achieve that from where we are now.