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ONE
NATION SUPPORTS MONARCHYONE
NATION SUPPORTS MONARCHYOne Nation supports Constitutional Monarchy as the basis of our form of government, which is envied and copied in part by other nations around the world, and strongly opposes measures in Federal Parliament, initiated by the Greens Party, aimed at forcing Australians to vote again on whether they want a republic. The defeat of the republic referendum in 1999 by a majority of the people was a clear signal to our politicians that the majority of Australians want to keep what a Constitutional Monarchy provides.
This includes a continuing and permanent non-political Head of State, represented by an Australian Governor-General, an entity called The Crown as the peak authority over all forms of government with safeguards to prevent politicians from terminating various basic freedoms.
Various republics, ranging from America to Zimbabwe, are at the mercy of wholly political systems of government with no overriding, non-political authority, as we have in Australia.
It is vital that our system of Constitutional Monarchy and the protection it gives us from political excesses is protected and preserved, along with our flag and what it represents for all Australians.
One Nation has now opened a register of people who oppose a republic and invites anyone who wants to record their objection to put their names and addresses by emailing today.
Democracy means 'government by the people'. The word 'democracy' is derived from the Greek 'demos' meaning people and 'kratos' meaning power. In the United Kingdom a particular form of government developed over several centuries called the Westminster System based on the concept of the separation of power into independent entities each exercising an individual authority and each providing a check and a balance on each other. Australia has, through its constitutional arrangements, achieved a fine democratic balance between parliament and people with power held in trust for the people by the Crown. A true example of people power or 'demos kratos'.
The Australian Constitution came into force on the 1st of January 1901 as an Act of the British Parliament. The Act combined the six colonial states into one Federation. Drafted by Australians it bound the then separate states into an indissoluble union under the Crown which we call the 'Federation'.
It was based on the British Westminster System but diverged to ensure that constitutional change could be effected only by a referendum of the people and not by parliament itself, thus ensuring that total sovereignty of the constitution rested solely with the people.
In essence the Crown is the result of a thousand years of Common, as opposed to Roman/Napoleonic law as practised in Europe. Custom, precedence and pragmatism are the hallmarks of the Crown.
Republicans say that change to a republic is just a simple matter of swapping it for a President. However, of all the former British colonies, it is only those nations, such as Australia, which have retained the Crown, that have been able to keep their freedom and democracy intact.
In a republic, civil and military authority is vested in the 'State' which is controlled by parliament, whereas in Australia such authority is ultimately protected from political control because it is vested in the Crown which is responsible only to the people. This was why the people and not parliament alone had to vote on the proposal for constitutional change in 1999.
The Queen and the Governor-General are, in effect, trustees of our Constitution.
The requirement for the monarch to appoint and/or dismiss the Governor-General, although always on the recommendation and at the request of the Prime Minister, effectively protects the system from total political control. While the process may seem to be anachronistic and even cumbersome, it is nevertheless a system well tried and proven and one which has made Australia - one of the youngest nations - the seventh oldest democracy in the world.
Whilst republics have Heads of State, Australia has a head of government (the Prime Minister), who exercises administrative authority. The Sovereign is the ultimate head of state but the Governor-General, upon appointment, assumes, as the Sovereign's representative, all the executive and ceremonial responsibilities of the Crown and thereby exercises similar duties to that of a non-executive head of state.
What will change if Australia is to become a republic? We will have a President instead of the Queen and the Governor-General, but there will be no material benefit whatsoever. Indeed, quite the reverse as no republican has put forward any sensible reason why there should be constitutional change. Some say we must become a republic to enhance trade in Asia, but common sense dictates that in trade only three things really count : quality, availability and price.
In Australia, we have what is called an "Absent Monarchy' which means that the Queen does not reside in Australia, but then we do not pay for her upkeep or day to day security. However, were we to have a President in place of the Queen and the Governor-General, the salary, staffing, housing, travel, security and associated costs are estimated to be at least ten to twenty times higher.
If the President were to be elected by the Parliament, the foremost consideration is whether the political party in power would unduly influence him or her.
If the President were to be elected by the people, however, his or her presidential campaign would need to be well funded. This would require the support of big business which, naturally, would expect a quid pro quo which in itself would disturb the neutrality of the office such as exists under our current system.
During recent royal visits, republicans on every occasion have only been able to harness a handful of people at vantage points to promote their agenda. In fact, at no time have there ever been mass demonstrations in support of a republic.
There is no real interest amongst the general public whatsoever for constitutional change. Should Australia ever become a republic, absolute power will pass to the politicians not from the Queen or the Governor-General, but from the people themselves, as this 'power' is always exercised by the Crown in the name of the people. This is why we are a true (people-power) democracy.
It is because The Crown withholds this power from them that republican politicians propose spending many hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars on a plebiscite and another referendum, which they openly admit will be designed to surreptitiously wear down any opposition to their objective.
Republicans may well have the support of most unions, the media, big business and certain celebrities to help them achieve the goal of forcing us to become a republic. Our champions, however, are the people themselves who will always rigorously protect their democracy from those who seek to deny them their freedoms.
One Nation calls upon all those who value the freedom and the democracy that is our right under the Crown to continue to support us.