There is a disinterest across the nation in the elites' proposal that we should remove the Crown from our constitutional system and become some sort of politicians’ republic. And it is growing.
The republicans don't help their case by refusing, almost 12 years after the failed republic referendum, to reveal the model of the republic they are hoping to impose on us.
I recently heard a former premier say his audience would not be surprised to know that politicians regularly receive private polling and focus group reports, often weekly. We weren't.
The politicians obviously realise that they made a mistake in assuming the elites were correct back in the 90's when they were told that a republic was inevitable and they had better jump on the bandwagon. Polling and focus groups are telling them not to touch this issue with a barge pole. That's why most republican politicians have put this issue on the "never-never".
They say "not in this reign", knowing full well they are not likely to be around then. I spend a lot of time speaking to groups around the country including the young, and my experience confirms the mesage the politicians are receiving. In fact I find that very few people are passionately republican.
….emerging leader…
Which brings me to a piece I saw last weekend by Tim Wilson. A young man, he is already the Director of Climate Change Policy and the Intellectual Property and Free Trade Unit at the one of the nation’s leading think tanks, the Institute of Public Affairs.
He’s also a Senior Fellow at New York's Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a Board member of Alfred Health and serves on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's IP Industry Consultative group.
He regularly appears on Australian and international television, radio and in the print media, and previously co-hosted ABC News 24's Snapshot segment. Tim has worked in international aid and development across South East Asia, consulting and politics.
In 2009 The Australian newspaper recognised him as one of the ten emerging leaders of Australian society as part of its Next 100 series, is a recipient of an Australian Leadership Award and was selected to participate in the inaugural Australian-ASEAN Emerging Leaders Program.
…juries & republic..
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Which brings me to a piece I saw last weekend by Tim Wilson. A young man, he is already the Director of Climate Change Policy and the Intellectual Property and Free Trade Unit at the one of the nation’s leading think tanks, the Institute of Public Affairs.
He’s also a Senior Fellow at New York's Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a Board member of Alfred Health and serves on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's IP Industry Consultative group.
He regularly appears on Australian and international television, radio and in the print media, and previously co-hosted ABC News 24's Snapshot segment. Tim has worked in international aid and development across South East Asia, consulting and politics.
In 2009 The Australian newspaper recognised him as one of the ten emerging leaders of Australian society as part of its Next 100 series, is a recipient of an Australian Leadership Award and was selected to participate in the inaugural Australian-ASEAN Emerging Leaders Program.
…juries & republic..
In The Sunday Telegraph’s Sunday Debate (28/8) he went head-to-head with Ainslie Van Onselen on whether or not juries are a waste of time. He doesn’t think so, an opinion I share.
He says a convincing case for dumping juries simply hasn't been made.
“After many years of pondering, I recently lapsed as a believer in an Australian Republic. I could no longer find there was sufficient benefit from toying with our Constitution over the simple conservative reality that our current system works.
“And the same is true of jury trials..
“Currently jury trials are required under the Constitution built on the traditions we inherited from England and the United States.“Juries aren't perfect. They don't always deliver desirable outcomes.
He concludes:
“Juries were introduced to reduce the tyrannical concentration and reach of those in power and ration it back to the people.
“The check and balance against this abuse of power is the right to pass judgment on our government through universal voting.
“Juries operate in the same spirit, devolving the power of an arm of government towards the people by allowing them to make judgments. While Her Majesty isn't likely to attempt to seize back control of our dominion, every component of decentralised government power decreases the likelihood that the sovereign could ever try.
“We aren't at the end of history.“Australians should be passing the structures of democracy on to future generations instead of the consequences of rash abandonment of an imperfect component of a working judicial system.”