[plug] [OT] Ferral Politics

[Craig Foster]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bret Busby [mailto:bret at busby.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, 30 October 2001 12:31 PM
> To: plug at plug.linux.org.au
> Subject: Re: [plug] [OT] Ferral Politics
>
>
<snip>
>
> Actually, ..... we were denied an opportunity to become a republic.
>
> The question has never been put to a referendum (well, not
> in the last 20
> odd years, anyway, and, they have been very odd years).
>
> We instead had a particular model offerred, which would
> have conferred a
> kingship, or, dictatorship, on the prime minister (the authority to
> irrevocably sack the equivalent of a governor-general,
> without requiring
> justification, which would have meant that a prime minister
> would have
> been unfettered in power). To vote for an absolute monarchy, or, a
> dictatorship, is different to voting for becoming a republic.
>
> We were the victims of a conspiracy by the feral
> parliament, to deny us
> the choice of whether we became a republic, because the
> feral parliament
> went to a great amount of effort, and, spent a great amount
> of OUR money,
> to avoid putting the question "Do you want australia to become a
> republic".
>
> If that question was ever put, and, if it obtained the required
> majorities, THEN a model that the required majority of the
> people agreed
> on, could be obtained, or not.
>
> But, australia has not been offered the choice of whether
> australia should
> become a republic, despite what the media and the
> politicians have said.


That's the same as saying that "all criminals should be sent to jail"
without saying for how long, or whether it should be solitary or minimum
security. The reason the referendum failed, was because, even though
*most* Australian's want a referendum, the options are only pallatable to
a small segment each. Like saying we hate Microsoft, when some of us don't
mind MS, but prefer other OSs.

Again, come to a consensus of models, and then we'll see what happens. I
wouldn't want to say "yeah go ahead, build a republic" and then have ten
years of squabbling over which model it should be. Would you trust pollies
with this kind of freedom with the constitution? Especially now we see how
they act when fighting for peoples votes...


Craig Foster

> --
> Bret Busby
> ..........
>
>
>
>
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