cynicismcentral.org - TOWNSVILLE AUSTRALIA

www.cynicismcentral.org/node/61
Having participated in the last 2 senate inquiries on the matter of an Australian Republic - This is the text of my submission in this matter.

Submission to the Inquiry into the Plebiscite for an Australian Republic Bill 2008.
Committee Secretary
Finance and Public Administration Committee
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Phone: +61 2 6277 3530
Fax: +61 2 6277 5809
Email: fpa [dot] sen [at] aph [dot] gov [dot] au

RE: Inquiry into the Plebiscite for an Australian Republic Bill 2008
http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/committee/fapa_ctte/republic_bill/info.htm

I write to the committee to express my support for the bill. I would like to remind the committee however, that though support for a republic is still high, that there has been less media coverage of this issue at this time, than in the lead up to the 1999 referendum on the issue.
Previous Constitutional Convention
http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/conv/hancon.htm

I ask the senate to consider that when the senate hands down its report, it asks the government that if the bill is passed, that in the mail out to electors is included internet links to information about the history and philosophy of republicanism.

Also, information about the difference between a secular republic and one in which there are references to religious deities in their foundation documents or constitutions.

Given that much public money will be expended in any mail out to the Australian public, and the fact that claims to any mandate for any particular government for the initiation or review of any given policies or laws is at best vague at any given Federal General Election, the parliament should use the mail out to gauge public opinion on a number of other important topics such as;

• Whether our alliance with the USA should be contingent on them dismantling ALL of there nuclear arsenal ;

• Whether uranium mining should be banned ;

• Whether parliamentary privilege should be dispensed with so that any parliamentarian who expresses support for Australia becoming the worlds nuclear waste dump can be declared officially insane;

• Whether nuclear powered and or armed vessels should be banned from entering Australian territory;

• Whether nuclear power for Australia be banned;

• Whether all references to the WORD “God” should be deleted from the constitution:

• Whether the prohibitions in s116 of The Constitution on the commonwealth passing laws for the imposition of any religious observance or for the establishment of any religion – should be extended to the states.

• That considering the words of Justice McHugh in Australian Capital Television v The CTH at Par [14] of that online decision http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/HCA/1992/45.html Where he said “In Federal Commissioner of Taxation v. Munro((340) [1926] HCA 58; (1926) 38 CLR 153, at p 178), Isaacs J. said that "the Constitution is for the advancement of representative government, and contains no word to alter the fundamental features of that institution" – whether we should ask whether the word “democracy” or that a reference to Australia being constituted as a democracy be included in the constitution .

• Whether their should be a statement in the constitution of what is self evident in the face of Monarchy – in that the people are sovereign ;

For a legal definition of what Popular Sovereignty means see “Deakin University School of Law , 1997 Deakin Law School Public Oration , Friday 22 August 1997 , Deakin – Popular Sovereignty and the true foundation of The Australian Constitution , Kirby J
http://www.hcourt.gov.au/speeches/kirbyj/kirbyj_deakin2.htm “ And Coleman v Power
[2004] HCA 39; 220 CLR 1; 209 ALR 182; 78 ALJR 1166 (1 September 2004)
http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/2004/39.html at Par [214]

• Whether Australia should be honest with the world , and stop wasting the UN’s and the international community’s time , and withdraw from the ICCPR on the grounds that our politicians pay lip service to it , but wont uphold its obligations to implement UNHRC decisions on the simplest of matters. http://www.cynicismcentral.org/node/38

In order that the parliament should know what it means to be a republican, I attach the text of a leaflet handed out at the Townsville Australia Day gathering 26/1/09. (see www.cynicismcentral.org/node/56 )