Republic

[Jarod:)]

Nothing to do with atheism, but I was wondering what everyones views about Australia becoming a republic.

[Praxis]

Originally Posted by Jarod:)

Nothing to do with atheism, but I was wondering what everyones views about Australia becoming a republic.

I'm moving this to the appropriate forum Jarod (Off Topic), as the Welcome New Members forum is just for that

[gruber]

What does it matter the same corrupt self serving idiots will still be in power

[KeithW]

It might seem a pretty easy question to answer, but there are issues that need to be addressed.

How is the new head of state going to be elected (or appointed). If they are going to be elected under a popular vote it could result in another layer of government and another power base. You could also end up like America where the presidency is basically up for sale.

If a president is nominated or elected by another method how will this go down with the general public.

Is there a happy medium, if a popular elected president is just a figurehead without any real power where does that leave them on the global stage.

You would like to feel that an elected president does have some real power but the thought of another layer of government makes me cringe a bit. Of course we could scrap the state governments as a trade off, or even the local councils.

[Fearless]

If it aint broke, don't fix it I say.

As much as we can't stand this pollie over that pollie and the same two parties tripping each other over and screwing one thing or another up, we don't do too badly as a nation really... we didn't fail as bad as they were projecting with the recent crash in the economy, we bounced back with little fuss. (Please don't thank the stimulus package )

If people are just hung up about the flag just change it, otherwise what else is there to benefit from really?

We are the lucky country in my books compared to most other super nations.

I think we do ok. No need to change anything and spend billions doing so.

oi oi oi.

[Loki]

During the debate for the cynical non referendum we had, I couldn't help thinking that if we had a popularly elected president we would have got Ray Martin.

[Fearless]

Go back a few years it could have been Nicky Webster!

[atheist_angel]

Did it help India?

[SchizoDeluxe]

It guess it doesn't really matter anymore, maybe 100-150 years ago when the country was being developed but now that everything is established, it would be more of a principle or symbolic kind of thing than anything else. Still, would be nice to not be part of the whole god-king/queen superstitious elitist idea for a change.

[Caio]

We have bigger things to worry about, while it would be nice to be a republic, it's something that can wait a bit more.
Maybe in the mean time we should settle for some constitutional 'updates', protecting peoples rights to things like freedom of speech, freedom of religion and a separation of religion and state/territory/shire/council/neighbor and law, equal rights for all (and i mean equal for all, in all circumstances, principally marriage and right to employment in any field regardless of sex, religion race etc)
The system works alright, so let it be, it just needs the continual maintenance and updates that any legal document and society needs.