POWER FOR THE PEOPLE WITH CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY

OR

POWER FOR THE GOVERNMENT WITH A REPUBLIC

 by Dr. Glen Sheil

No wonder the law is an ass when it has deluded ex High Court Judges and assorted legists to interpret it. Anthony Mason and Zelman Cowen for example, contend that the Queen is our head of state when this is denied by our Constitution and the Queen herself (see Buckingham Palace web site).

Not only that but the Constitution strips the British Monarch of all the Powers of the Australian Crown (Section 61), and vests them in the Australian People (Section 128), to be exercised by the Governor-General alone, for and on behalf of all the people (not the Government).

On top of this the Queen does not live here and no Monarch even visited us for our first 54 years. We do not pay the Queen a cent, nor do we house or defend her. She does not even have a hands-on daily role in our government, as do heads of state of other countries. Add to this the fact that head of state is not mentioned in our Constitution as an Office of the Commonwealth. Nowhere does the Queen come into our government.

Heads of States belong to the republics. You know republics. They are the countries where all the world's refugees come from. There are no refugees from any of the world's Constitutional Monarchies where the people are protected from rogue politicians by their Crowns. Their Crowns cannot be corrupted but politicians can.

The Crown is certainly the weak link the republicans' case. The Queen is Monarch of Great Britain where she reigns and rules. The Queen is Sovereign of fifteen other Constitutional Monarchies, one of which is Australia, where she reigns but does not rule.

The only job the Queen does for us is appoint and remove our Governor-General on the advice of our democratically elected Prime Minister. Should we want her to cease this practice, all we have to do is ask her. It represents our method of appointment and removal and has nothing to do with control. Constitutional Monarchists regard the practice as a congenial reminder of our remarkable Constitutional development, and a token of the gratitude we bear Great Britain for the flying start she gave us as a nation.

Glenister Sheil