Would like to know abit about Australian politics

I might have this wrong, but I thought the majority of people were not confused about the way in which the question was asked, or its content, but they were confused over “who” was going to be given the power to elect the President?

Many people in favour of Australia becoming a republic voted against the republic, because they were confused and frightened that politicians were going to have the power to elect the President, and not them.

The people wanted the power to elect the President as per the US system if Australia become a republic, and they were confused and scared that if Australia become a republic under the model that was proposed; that power would be taken away from them and giving to a hand-full of politicians.

The majority saw the advertised model as being a corrupt way of anyone with enough money being able to buy a Presidency, and not being democratic system like they wanted.

Everyone I spoke with at the time wanted a republic, but they were either confused or scared on the issues about how the President was going to be elected, and they decided to vote for the monarchy, because they didn’t trust politicians.

I have to admit, that I wanted a republic, but voted against it, becuase there was not enough solid information to make an infored decision on. One politician advocating the republic cause would say one thing, and the next day, another politician advocating the same cause would say something different.

 

Aus politics is the left (ALP) serve their own interests which they publicise as being the interests of the working class and art's (short term goals, long term weakness) and run the place like a union..... versus the right (LNP) try to serve the interests of the nation as a whole (longer term goals, short term vulnerability) and treat it like a business. An emerging problem is that live media are usually of left bias, and so this country is heading towards US style popularity elections - especially now since the ALP have changed things to make their own party leaders by popular vote. Naturally the problem with the right is that they appear old fashioned by not pandering to the popular vote and as a result are open to media distortion and manipulation due to the shallow nature of live nu-media. The real problem with the Libs is they are often putting business ahead of the workers - which fits neatly into the ALP model and thusly you have the Australian landscape of politics. Ignoring the free-radicals who are the independants.

The republic issue is commonly viewed as a waste of time and money because it will make no practical difference and the one thing that Australia lacks, is some actual culture - so why go destroying something ceremonial which represents a huge part of our recent history just because the young and restless of the country think bigger of themselves because they have to change everything for the sake of change.

In my opinion and observations.

 

This is exactly what the problem was. Nobody really understood the process that was to be undertaken and considered that this referendum would one of only two or three to be had before Australia could declare it a republic and cut its ties from the Monarchy. Truth is, that the issue would take decades to resolve with many referendums that should one or two fail would tack further decades to construct better solutions. As Axial points out the waste of time and considerable amount of money, the uncertainty of change of regime for such a long time would actually be detrimental to Australia and for what???

BUT you have to remember, that this was change in a form that most people desired. There are easier and quicker ways to reform for a republic, just that many would suffer under those changes which was why the idea of the system of change was promoted.

 

OMG, it will take ages to get the soap suds out of your head

 

Dead right Culldav that was the problem. In the proposed model the parliment was going to elect the president, little different to the way the ruling parety elects the pm today. That buffoon Beasley didn't help by saying, "Just vote yes and we will sort out the details later"!

 

I can also clearly remember Prince Philip being interviewed by the media after the republic referendum was defeated. He comically said something along the lines of how stupid he though Australian people were, in that they finally had the chance to get rid of the monarchy once and for all, but decided to keep them as their overlords.

I wanted a republic, but not one politician in favour of the republic or in favour of the monarchy could explain to me in any detail how the President was going to be elected after the republic was established. I was forced to vote against the republic due to the lack of credible information.

Unfortunately, I am use to politicians being a bunch of lying deceitful scumbags, and I would personally trust a black snake over any politician.

 

I was in favour of being a republic. But then I did a bit of digging around and realised it wasn't as simple as trading in a monarch for a president. That ended it for me. Well until the pollies can show me the full model, not the half-baked idea of getting rid of the Brit monarchy.