Howard Won!

Tuesday 27^th Nov 2001

It doesn't really matter. This election result only heightens the need to discuss the real issues about the nature of government in Australia. The battle between the leaders of the parties to determine who will be the next prime minister only emphasises the need for this country to have a popularly elected Governor General.

The particular form of government in Australia at present is only a convention: The party that can dominate the lower house gets to govern. The leader of that party gets to be the Prime Minister. It is only a convention.

Our constitution does not need to be changed to change the form of our government. A famous example demonstrates this point.

The 'crisis' of 1975 was a situation where the opposition in the Senate and the Governor General broke convention. What Fraser and Kerr did was not unconstitutional. Doing it when people didn't expect or understand how our system of government worked meant that they did the dirty as far as many people were concerned. But they didn't break the rules, just a convention.

A popularly elected Governor General will have the mandate to govern.

This is a good thing. It is no different to a Governor General rubber stamping a Prime Minister's decision as far as that goes, but there is an interesting difference to be sure. The Governor General is not in the Parliament. The ministers of state have to be in the parliament, our representatives have to be in the parliament, but the Governor General and other non-ministerial members of the executive council who the Governor General may appoint for advice are outside Parliament.

Those who govern should not legislate. Those who govern should be elected directly by the people. Those who govern should have to listen to the peoples' representatives.

More on this later.

End Of Rant.

(C)opyright Sylvano Lucchetti.