Louis Cook | Numurkah
November 11 is Remembrance Day, and next November 11 marks 50 years since Sir John Kerr, the Governor-General at the time, suspended Parliament pending an election to decide who would govern for all Australians.
A federal election was held in Australia on December 13, 1975. It was a double dissolution.
All 127 seats in the House of Representatives and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election.
Thus, on this day, it was the Australian people who dismissed the Whitlam Government!
The election was not the result of a ‘constitutional crisis’, as often portrayed in the mainstream media, but a political party power struggle between the leaders of the respective parties, Mr Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser.
The provisions of the Australian Constitution were used to resolve the deadlock without bloodshed, and following the election, the Australian people were able to quickly get on with their lives. This demonstrated that Australians have the best system of government available — anywhere!
Today (Tuesday, November 6), the local media is ‘chock-full’ of the United States election events. Who would want to swap our ‘Constitutional Monarchical’ system of government for a republican model like that? It is possibly the best republican model going, but it does not come within a ‘bull’s roar’ of the Australian system with its democratic principles.
The Monarch (Crown) has little or no power in itself but is an essential component in the ‘division of power’.
The Monarch is the ‘human face’ of the system and comes under criticism in an effort to bring the system down. It is the elected representatives who have the vote in the respective divisions of our democracy, who must be held accountable for the day-to-day running of our country, not the King or Governor-General.
I urge all Australians to defend the Constitution; ask your member of parliament for a copy and read it for yourself.
Do not support any change at all to the Constitution unless you are absolutely sure it is right and proper.