01.11
This post follows on directing from When I Come to Power (Part 1) published on November 27, 2009.
Also on the hit list of things that could be done better is the state governments. Specifically, we don’t need them. State government serves not practical purpose. From what I can see, they exist to collect GST revenue and Stamp Duty then spend it on mis-guided transport plans and their own, self-serving needs. I believe that the state governments could be removed, and the money saved put towards much better causes. There’s no reason why we should keep the state governments. NSW has pretty much lead the way in showing just how pathetically useless these people are.
We’ve seen our impotent state government leap from Premier to Premier with little direction, little ability to govern the state and a strong desire to increase their pay packets on the back of some of the lowest opinion polls I’ve ever seen. Only last week were they at each others throats. We’ve got a new Premier now (Princess KiKi, as I’ve come to call her), a “new” cabinet and other hollow promise to fix things. Get fucked. We don’t need this.
They’re so wanting to hold onto power that they won’t call a much needed early election. Instead deciding to install yet another Premier that doesn’t have the full support of the party.
Even without all their infighting and self-absorption there’s plenty of reasons why they don’t need to exist.
To cut a long story short; I don’t know why we need 8 different healthcare systems, 8 different police forces, 8 different education systems, 8 different traffic authorities and 8 different transport systems. These could all be managed by federal bodies.
The state governments could very easily be replaced. At the very least, the money saved by removing such pointless entities could be put to better use.
Finally, there’s the question of who should be our head of state. Currently, it’s Queen Elizabeth II, who you might recognise as someone who isn’t an Australian. Given that we have been our own country for over 100 years, I believe that it’s time that we finally cut that last tie back to the mother-country and amended the constitution to create and Australian head of state.
Of course, this debate last came to a head in 1999 when a referendum was held proposing just this idea. Sadly it was defeated, mainly due to the wording of the question, and the proposed method for selecting our new head of state. The method put forward was to have a President elected by a two-thirds majority of the House of Representatives. This proved to be something of a sticking point with the Australian people who felt that, after finally gaining complete autonomy, they should be able to elect their own head of state.
I propose that, firstly, we amend the constitution to replace the Governor-General with a President. This position would retain essentially the same powers as it currently have, except for the ability to dissolve parliament.
While I don’t believe that our head of state should be appointed by parliament – too open to abuse – they should also be not elected solely by the people – as they’d likely put…that popular celebrity tart who’s famous for no reason…in there.
Possible candidates shall be put forward from a bi-partisan committee, the voted on as part of the usual general election (usually). Their elected term will be two ordinary federal elections, or ten years. Which ever comes first.
So, there you have it. That’s how I’ll run the country…when I come to power.