Why You Should Vote for Me

1. Australia should become a republic.
   (See Reasons for a Republic)

2. A real republic doesn't just have a President instead of a monarch - it has a Constitution that makes it clear that We, the People, are the sovereign, and that the politicians and the executive government are our servants whose powers are to be used for the public benefit, not for their own benefit or sheer love of power. That is, power in a republic comes from the bottom up.

3. The present Commonwealth Constitution assumes that power comes from the top down. It gives the members of Parliament power to make laws about who has the right to vote, to change the electoral system, and to determine their own privileges and their own salary and other entitlements. It masks who really holds executive power by "vesting" it in the Queen and Governor-General (see section 61), when it is really exercised by the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and then subjects it to no limitations.

4. The the ARM's proposed minimal changes to the Constitution do nothing to remedy the above defects. The Constitution will still be in most respects a top-down Constitution if these minimal changes are accepted. And a minimal change to section 61, to vest executive power in the President will cause confusion as to who has the real executive power and fuel the fears of those who believe that a republic will be unstable because of rivalry between President and Prime Minister.

5. I am still a "minimalist" in that I do not want to change to a US-style executive President, or make any immediate changes to the federal system (though there ought to be another Convention sometime to discuss the federal division of powers), BUT

6. I suggest that the Constitution needs changes, in particular-
   • to guarantee our basic legal and political rights;
   • to put some limits on the powers of both
     • Parliament and
     • the executive government;
   • to define the President's role, so that, no matter how he/she is to be elected, it is clear that the job is simply to be the guardian of Constitutional government and not some sort of head of the executive government, rivalling the Prime Minister; and
   • to make it easier for people other than the government in power to propose further constitutional amendments.
   (For the above five paragraphs see Constitutional Alterations for a Real Republic)

7. Though I can see much merit in the ARM's argument that election by the Parliament (with a requirement for a large majority) would be the best way to select a person for this neutral role, I believe that the electors should be given a choice of republican models, on this issue and maybe on others.
   (See Electing the President.)

8. There are many other candidates who also believe in a more genuinely-republican Constitution, in a clearer definition of the role of the President, and in trusting the voters with a choice of options at a referendum [and I have put them all fairly high on my preference ticket]. However, of all of them I am the one who has been doing by far the most work on drafting alternative amendments, and has by far the clearest and most comprehensive proposals for a properly-democratic Constitution for a republic. I will be the one who will best be able to argue for these proposals at the Convention.
   (See Constitutional Alterations for a Real Republic now, if you didn't click it earlier.)

See also:

• A bit about myself

• How to Vote for Me

• Will Your Vote be Wasted? - Voting Tickets and Below-the-Line Voting

• Ideas from Other Countries - finding the Constitutions of other countries on the Web

• Other Issues for Later Conventions