Our ‘roadmap’ for reform
In June 2021 the Real Republic Australia has outlined a suggested “roadmap” to achieve public support for a referendum on our nation’s transition to a republic, and to address other proposals for beneficial changes to our Constitution.
Central to our plan is the simple idea that the Australian Constitution belongs to the people of Australia. It is for Australians to assess and examine the Constitution and to play a role in reforming and reshaping it when and where necessary. We believe our “roadmap” provides an understandable and effective way to do just that.
CLICK HERE TO READ OUR ROADMAP IN FULL
While further details are provided in our discussion paper and in our roadmap document itself, in brief our plan is based around a new entity called an Australian Constitutional Assembly (ACA) created under federal law.
We propose that a series of Australian Constitutional Assemblies could be established to consider specific reform proposals under a long-term plan for constitutional review .
Each Assembly would be give 12 months to complete its review and would report to the Speaker of the House of Representatives who would also be administratively responsible for their operation through the Department of the House of Representatives. Each Assembly would comprise:
an expert chair designated by the Speaker of Federal Parliament would be an Australian citizen but not an elected member of any legislative body, and
99 part-time members being Australian citizens entitled to vote at a referendum and recruited at national level in accordance with best recruitment practice so as to be broadly representative of Australian society. Selection of the membership of each Assembly other than its chair would be conducted by a professional market research firm chosen by open public tender.
Each Assembly would be supported by a small secretariat including administrative and research staff similar to support staff provided to commissions of inquiries or parliamentary portfolio committees.
The secretariat would source for an Assembly an expert reference group consisting of individuals knowledgeable in the issue under consideration as well as undertake specific research tasks assigned to it by Assembly members.
The Federal Parliament would have the ability to vary the size of any Assembly to involve more than 100 people in total, or to establish separate Assemblies in each state and territory that could pool recommendations.
Each ACA would specifically exclude membership by elected members of legislative bodies. But any government, opposition, or cross-bench parties as well as individual elected members of any parliament or party wishing to have their say could do so by making a submission to, or appearing as a witness before Assembly members.
Members of each Assembly would be entitled to payment for meetings they attend and specified travel costs and other designated expenses. It is envisaged that each Assembly would decide its work plan and the frequency and method of its meetings, with most expected to be virtual meetings held at weekends or after working hours.
At the conclusion of an Assembly, a federal government will need to justify its decision to support or oppose any recommendations of the Assembly – recommendations which will essentially reflect the view of the wider Australian community.
This approach offers a flexible and effective way to engage Australians in the process of constitutional reform and renewal.
We believe that the Australian Constitutional Assembly model offers the best chance to avoid partisan politicking of the type that has bedevilled previous efforts at constitutional reform.
Below is a flowchart showing in brief how an Australian Constitutional Assembly might consider the issue of an Australian republic.
Our suggested process involves an ACA shortlisting workable republic models and giving Australian voters a chance to have their say in a non-binding plebiscite so that they can pick their preferred model which would then proceed to a referendum.
That would give the referendum the best chance of success because the model being put to voters would belong to Australians themselves, and not to any pro-republic group or individual.
In drafting our proposals for a system of Australian Constitutional Assemblies we have drawn on the experience in Ireland where a series of Citizens’ Assemblies has considered issues of public policy and proposed constitutional changes. The process was first used through the
The 2012 Constitutional Convention involving 33 MPs and 66 Irish citizens who were tasked with considering reforms to the nation’s constitution.
The 66 citizens were selected using established market research techniques to deliver a representative sample of the Irish community.
At the same time additional voters were chosen as “shadow” delegates to substitute for any delegates who dropped out or were unavailable to complete the deliberative process.
A flow-on from the Constitutional Convention was a successful ongoing system of Citizens’ Assemblies – comprising 99 citizens and an appointed chair – to consider other issues.