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Queenslanders for Constitutional Monarchy

Michael Darby
Cloncurry

Michael Darby is a linguist and former army officer well known for his support for the self- determination of nations suffering under republican military occupation. He holds the Lithuanian Medal of St. Casimir, and has been a consistent campaigner for East Timorese independence since 1975. Familiar to television and radio audiences, Michael Darby is in the first rank of Australia's performance poets, and may be contacted by email to bushpoet@hotmail.com, or telephone 0413 348 843. Michael's wife Lynne, a dedicated supporter of Constitutional Monarchy, passed away in 1996.

. Art of Peter J. Hill and Poetry of Michael Darby

What the Republicans Want

The modern push for republicanism in Australia began with the events of 11th November 1975, when Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed Prime Minister E.G. Whitlam and ordered a General Election. The then prevailing view of the Australian Left was that once elected with a majority in the Lower House, a (Labor) government should be entitled to do whatever it likes for the full duration of its term, without any constraints being imposed by the Senate, the States or the Constitution. Prime Minister R.J. Hawke confirmed this opinion in 1988 by expressing admiration for the New Zealand system of no States, no Senate and no Constitution.

In November 1975 Whitlam and his supporters were furious that Sir John Kerr, a Labor appointee (and former ALP member), should act against a Labor Government which was attempting to govern without money granted to it by the Parliament. Sir John settled the Parliamentary deadlock by sacking Mr. Whitlam and insisting that the latter be put to the people. Those whose personal ambitions were thwarted by Sir John have ever since perversely described the calling of an election as undemocratic.

The vitriol poured by the political and media left upon Sir John was very bitter indeed, and the scuttlebutt generated by the Left included a patently false claim that the Governor-General was influenced by the CIA, and the equally false but more widely believed accusation that the Queen had instructed Sir John to dismiss the Whitlam Government.

Section 2 of the Australian Constitution describes the Governor-General as the Representative of the Monarch, but it must be clearly understood that this representation, intended principally to be ceremonial, can apply only to powers which the Monarch actually has. Apart from the unused powers which theoretically exist under Sections 58 and 59 of the Constitution, Her Majesty the Queen has no power to intervene in Australian politics, as Sir John Kerr well knew. This was not so well understood in 1975 by Labor's Speaker of the House of Representatives, Gordon Scholes, who on 12th November wrote to Her Majesty requesting that she dismiss the Governor-General and reinstate the Labor Government. Buckingham Palace replied, as might be expected, firmly in the negative, pointing out that Her Majesty can act only on the advice of her Prime Minister.

The Whitlam theme for the December 1975 election was 'Labor has not been given a fair go', but the Australian people resoundingly endorsed the action of Sir John Kerr by giving a huge majority to the Fraser-Anthony Government. In Queensland Labor lost all but one House of Representatives seat, Oxley, which Bill Hayden held narrowly against a spirited challenge by Jim Shapcott.

In defiance of this clear expression of opinion of the will of the Australian people, the Australian Left continued to perpetrate the false myth of a stab-in-the back by a wicked Governor-General controlled by foreign interests. The diverse elements of the Left promoted various means of ensuring that never again would a (Labor) government be frustrated in its desire to control Australia's destiny without the handicap of rules or discipline. Proposals included the abolition of the Senate, the abolition of the Senate's right to reject legislation or to deny Supply, the abolition of the States and, as an umbrella policy, the abolition of Australia's ties with the Crown. A whole generation of Australians has been deliberately misled towards the belief that the Crown interferes in Australian politics.

The real motive of the republicans has little to do with filling some imagined gap in Australia's national psyche. What the republicans want is the removal of all the restraints on the power of an elected republican government. Elected republican governments worldwide have a very bad track record in preserving the rights of minorities, and tend to display as a major common characteristic the willingness to use the resources of the nation to perpetuate themselves in office.

Republican systems have no mechanism for providing a guarantee that a vengeful or authoritarian government will not abuse its powers, and indeed the sad truth of history is that abuse of power in the interests of the controlling political party is an endemic problem with republics. Australia deserves a political system where the supporters of one political party have nothing serious to fear from another political party being in office. We have such a system. The republicans want to change our system, because what they have in mind for Australia they cannot achieve without first removing the Crown and its restraint on the abuse of governmental power.

For more background, see Duties and Powers of the Queen at the official site of Her Majesty the Queen.

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