In the current election you\'[ve got a choice between someone born in Wales and someone born in London to be your new PM.
So why the fuss over the idea that the Head of State wasn\’t born in Oz?
You seem happy enough with the idea that you\’ve got to import Brits to rule over you after all….
You’re missing the point. It isn’t where the head of state is born at issue but the structure of the system. We don’t want an Aussie-born monarch either. (Yes, I’m an Aussie passport holder)
But Peter, a lot of the republicans simply want to scrap the monarchy and effectively give the job to a Governor General replacement, so you’re keeping the same basic governance principle of a Parliamentary system with a ceremonial head of state, but replacing the GG with a president and breaking the link to the monarch.
I can see why you’d want to do it, and it has to be up to you, and that’s much better than the insanity of a directly elected president with executive authority and all the problems that entails, but given it’ll piss off and annoy a lot of monarchists and royalists for little net gain, I’m not sure I see why you’d bother.
My perpetual proposal to export Harry and you can have your own native King remains my best solution to resolve the monarchist problem though.
My daughter can be the Govenor General but not the “Head of State”.
Both are effectively ceremonial so it’s not something I lose sleep over. Our current incumbent GG has Socialist sympathies but as Lady Bracknell would say, she has no effect whatsoever.
Playing “Devil’s Advocate” if I may, how much does the current system cost the Australian taxpayer and how much will a “President” cost? I suspect the latter is going to cost far more and suspect many of the leading advocates see the first President each time they look into a mirror. The current system seems to work and is pretty cheap, why “fix” it if it is not broken? In the UK the Monarchy runs at a net profit and I don’t expect any replacement to do the same!
Tony Abbot may have been born in London but it was to Australian parents so he’s a true blue Aussie. Unlike Prince Charles.