Argumentative Essay: Should Australia Become A Republic?

Australian society is often defined as egalitarian since the government equally accepts the diversity of population regardless of their personal backgrounds, socioeconomic status, health condition and political opinions. The society is supposed to attach importance to the fair civil liberties, protect local industries and provide every resident with welfare support, the opportunity of education and employment. However, after world economy crisis brought great global change in the 1980s, Australian political policy dramatically changed into profitability toward this competitive global economy. This includes the decrease in protectionism, privatization of institutions, further employment bargaining and also reduction of the subsidy

First of all, there are some similarities between the Australian government and the American government. They both have a congress, although they call it parliament in the Australian government. Both have a federal government; this means that they have state and federal governments. They have senators that represents the states. They have a house that is elected by the people. In both countries, legislation has to be passed through both houses. They both have a court that interprets the constitution and handles final appeals (Supreme Court in U.S. and High Court in Australia). Also, they both have written constitutions that describes the powers of government. However, they both have differences.

In the Australian constitution the Queen holds the executive power and also has legislative power. The Governor General is appointed by the Queen and is also the commander-in-chief. Another difference between the two countries is the Australian judicature. The High Court of Australia does not have the power of judicial review. Ultimately, in Australia the parliament and the prime minister have the complete power.

In this essay, it will be seen that the expansion of the external affairs power since Federation reflects Australia’s growing independence from a Dominion of the United Kingdom and its transition into nationhood.

As the Prime Minister of Australia, it is my duty to present my democratic nation with their elected desires. The current issue is concerning the movement of Australia’s governing system from a constitutional monarchy to a republic. I believe that Australia should become a republic, as our sunburnt country has overtime developed culturally and democratically since 1901 when we become the Commonwealth of Australia, and started living under the ruling of Queen Elizabeth the Second. We have created a place that is in no way similar to the British Empire. As Australians we respect and acknowledge the traditional owners of our land, the Aborigines. Over time, it seems as though we have taken this country out of their hands and handed it to the

In this referendum, 54.87% of the population voted in the negative to Australia becoming a republic. The result obtained through this nationwide ballot show that the overwhelming majority of Australian’s have chosen to not become a republic when presented the opportunity. Additionally, they contest that the current system of governance has effectively worked since the days of conception to now. So a system which has been functional and a major source of stability for over 116 years, doesn’t require any restructuring or overhaul. Another argument held by the right wing conservatives is that in being constitutional monarchy under the monarch of Great Britain we have gained many advantages such as important relations with the UK and other Commonwealth countries, these relations have allowed us to become the functional, strong and independent country we are today. Another argument held by the monarchists is that the cost of changing to a republic would be astronomically high. The previous expenses spent to run the 1999 referendums which was $87.5 million as well as the estimated costs of changing references to the monarchy in government stationary, letter-headers, logos, etc are estimated to go into the billions of dollars. Expenditure of this magnitude is currently not viable considering the

Australia 's Federal System is dynamic and the division of lawmaking power between the Commonwealth and State since 1901 has changed dramatically; Critically discuss, focussing on the major reasons for those changes.

     Australia’s form of government has been described as a constitutional monarchy, in which the queen of England is the nominal head of state. In the federal government, power rests with the elected political party that holds the majority in the House of Representatives. The leader is the prime minister. The Senate consists of 76 members who are elected every six years. The House of Representatives has 147 members and they face elections every three years. Any laws that involve changes to the Constitution must be decided by a referendum in which the country’s citizens are called to vote on whether or not they want such changes to take place.

The piece Advance Australia … within reason, was conveyed on the 5th of January by Amy Mackintosh, at the annual “University of Students for Youth Political Activism’ meeting held at The University of Melbourne. Mackintosh steadily argues the reasons why Australia should not have become a republic, and how the country should stay as a monarchy. The tone of the speech is very colloquial and even sarcastic, with the middle part being more analytical and serious. The speaker gives the impression that the argument for Australia to stay as a Monarchy is unbiased and logical.

Paragraph 1 - The Australian Constitution is a set of rules by which the country or state is run, and it first took effect on the 1st January 1901. Before the Constitution, Australia was not classed as a nation. The Australian Constitution is the set of rules that Australia is run by. Australian people vote for the nation-wide constitution in a series of referendums (a general public vote used to approve). The constitution was written Australia to be classed as a nation.

Australia is a democratic country. It consists of three main authorities: the Queen of Australia (The Queen of UK), the Senate and the House of Representatives. The representative government is the people elected members of the parliament to represent them. The lower house (the House of Representatives) consists 150 members, each is elected from single member constituencies which are also known as electoral divisions. The upper house (the Senate), consists of 76 members (12 for each state, and 2 each for the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory). Every 3 years, the full House of Representatives and half of the Senate is dissolved and goes up for re-election.

The legal constitution of Australia was developed by the multiple principles of the British and the United States of America1. However, a major factor that was eliminated from these principles was the notion of the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights main purpose is to affirm, protect, promote human rights and fundamental freedoms1. Australia does not have a Bill of Rights, since it has been ascertained that the citizens of Australia are protected by common law and legislation2. It is highly asserted that parliamentary representatives protect the rifhts of the citizens of Australia and a Bill of Rights would ultimately “distort our system of government by giving unelected judges too much influence over how our democracy develops”2. However, not adopting a Bill Of Rights in this day and age could be quite detrimental to Australia’s society, with the ever increasing acts of terrorism and national security.

Even though they hold the title king and queen, you can tell they don't have as much control on what gets published in the eyes of the public. Some states that are in a Constitutional monarchy today are Australia, The Bahamas, Denmark , Canada, Spain , Sweden, New Zealand, Japan,Norway and many more. 
 Classical republic is a theory of democracy known to have the best government , “ the common good” , and is the welfare of an entire society. Some characteristics that are in the classical republic are moral education : the development of good habits and the manner in which one should have , Communities : a small homogenous community so that people will maintain similar interests and care for each others health care to promote the common good. Also Uniformity dealing with religion, and racism.

Australia being a Federal Government was established in its constitution. Australia practices a parliamentary or responsible government system of governance. However, some of the features of Australia's system of government were also based on customs and traditions which were not described in its constitution.

The commonwealth needs to be under a form of permanent government. In essays written by Cicero, he explains, “There is not one of these three form of government, which has not a precipitous and slippery passage down to some proximate abuse” (Cicero, Commonwealth). Three forms of government, being aristocracy, monarchy, and