Ovoid and polyhedral republican wheels.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)

SIR: Your May editorial ("What Kind of Republic?") prompts me, a roving Briton who has kept an eye on this long-running saga, to a few observations.

Seldom can a country have spent so long on such a matter with so little to show for it. One might have thought that India, (the Republic of) Ireland, Malta, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago were obvious ports of call when seeking to combine a Westminster-style system with a president of limited power. I understand that there are a few Australians of Maltese, Indian, even of Irish descent and connexion. Only recently, it seems, has the Irish model been touted around (and is there really any evidence that the 1937 Irish constitution has delivered anything that its 1922 monarchical predecessor could not?; certainly not in good government, but possibly in needless antagonism). Instead, years were spent re-inventing the wheel in various ovoid and polyhedral shapes.

The latest I have heard is to replace the Queen with a popularly elected president of absolutely no political power (you can also have a monarchy like that--Sweden) and replace the governor-general with, er, a governor-general, appointed by the president to conduct the more-or-less dignified part of constitutional government and, presumably, to hold the reserve powers. Two for the price of two (who lives where?); in place of two for the price of one.

It strikes me that there are many issues of constitutional importance worthy of serious investigation and showing more signs of wear than constitutional monarchy: centralisation of powers within the federation, centralisation of cabinet power in the hands of the prime minister; the quality of elected representatives and the quality and neutrality of the public service; compulsory voting, compulsory preferencing, the above-the-line arrangements for electing senators; the proper powers of the states and how they are exercised; the role of local government and possible reorganisation of its boundaries, levels and ...