A FEDERAL Court judge has made a new call for a republic with a
popularly elected head of state.Justice Robert French said Australians
should set their goals high when moving to a republican constitution,
and this should include a mechanism for choosing the head of state
that accorded with democratic principle and popular sovereignty.
"It would be foolish to be dogmatic about the means of selection," he
said. "The model must be one which recognises the authority of the
people of Australia as the legal foundation of its constitution. That
most in accord with democratic principle, and therefore most likely to
have the sup****t of the people, is direct popular election."
Justice French said that a republican constitution should also contain
a new preamble asserting that the source of its authority was the
Australian people, and acknowledging indigenous Australians. "A
republican constitution would also continue, but in an improved way,
the power conferred on the Commonwealth Parliament by the 1967
referendum to make laws for Australia's indigenous people," he said
It is interesting to note the Commonwealth Parliament had no power to
make laws for the Aboriginals before 1967. Victorian parliament has
today no power to make laws for the aboriginal poeple of Victoria...
Strange but true
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