A new year’s resolution: Get back on the reform horse

After the defeat of the Voice Referendum, PM Anthony Albanese should not walk away from constitutional reforms and instead embrace a new process to deliver non-partisan backing for change, writes David Muir.

IN 2024, AUSTRALIANS need to snap out of the mindset that the 14 October Referendum result means we should never try to change the Australian Constitution without bipartisan support.

Some people are even more pessimistic and say we shall never see another referendum at all. Ever.

Both views arise predominantly from those who supported the Voice and disagreed with the Referendum result. Those who backed the “No” case may well include many who see no impediment to more referendums on various issues.

The point is that just because a specific referendum failed doesn’t mean we should abandon efforts to reform our Australian Constitution, or stall reforms while waiting for possibly unattainable bipartisan support.

Progressive politics will shape a better future for Australia

The time has come to reform the Australian political system and step away from the two-party structure that is keeping us from becoming a republic.

Instead, we should consider an alternative approach that goes beyond mere bipartisan support to secure a level of non-partisan support that offers the best chance of achieving reforms delivering real and measurable benefits by improving the way we are governed.

For instance, Australian Electoral Commission figures show the 2022 Election for the House of Representatives and half the Senate cost $522.4 million.

By reforming our Constitution to mandate fixed four-year terms, we would save more than half a billion dollars every 12 years in current-day values. That’s a saving of more than $1 billion in today’s values in little more than two decades.

It would also achieve greater fairness by taking away from prime ministers the ability to game the system and give themselves an advantage when picking an election date.

A second beneficial reform proposal – supported by National Party leader David Littleproud – is the constitutional recognition of local government.

It has been defeated at two referendums and a third was scrapped in 2013 when reinstalled Prime Minister Kevin Rudd changed the Federal Election date set by Julia Gillard, thereby voiding the mandated timetable for the referendum she had planned.

Local government recognition could deliver real savings to taxpayers through the more efficient transfer of funds from the Federal Government directly to councils instead of funnelling them via state bureaucracies.

There are clear and quantifiable benefits to such reforms. Even an Australian republic would bring tangible advantages by enhancing our status as a truly independent nation with our own head of state to promote Australia and all it has to offer to the world in terms of investment opportunities, tourism, lifestyle, education and training, and more.

Australia's vicious constitutional cycle needs to be broken

The results of the Voice Referendum serve as a reminder that Australia's Constitution is archaic and in need of reform for us to move forward.

Our current head of state, King Chares III, does that sort of global promotion exclusively for Great Britain, not us.

To achieve constitutional reforms we need to start now to embrace new ways to harness non-partisan support for change.

We should not shy away from future referendums just because one has fallen over. In 2024, we need to get back on the reform horse.

For Australians to decide their position on a referendum question, they must be engaged and informed well before they turn up to vote.

Last-minute ad campaigns or sloganeering to convince people of the value of supporting reform won’t cut it.

Having voters better informed can best be achieved by having them involved in a non-partisan process preceding any referendum.

In 2021, the Real Republic Australia, which advocates for a genuine directly elected head of state, proposed its own roadmap for reform involving new entities we labelled Australian Constitutional Assemblies that are based on the Citizens’ Assemblies used successfully in Ireland to achieve constitutional and other law reforms.

Like the Irish template, our suggested Assemblies would form part of a long-term reform program with each comprising 99 average voters proactively chosen to reflect the composition of the wider Australian community broadly.

Led by an independent expert chair, each Assembly would examine a specific proposed constitutional reform, hear evidence, quiz experts and advocates, filter facts from fiction, and report its recommendations to the Federal Government which would decide when to hold a referendum.

Australian politics due for an overhaul

The Australian two-party political system needs major reform in order for us to progress towards becoming a republic.

In the case of a republic referendum, an Assembly could hear submissions on possible models and draft a shortlist to be put to voters in a non-binding plebiscite with the most popular model then proceeding to a referendum.

In that way, the model on the ballot paper will not belong to the Government, politicians, the Real Republic Australia, the Australian Republic Movement or any other group. It will be the people’s preferred choice and it will have the best chance of success.

The right model is crucial to any republic referendum. The 1999 Referendum failed because the wrong model was on the ballot paper. But imagine if no model had been proposed and voters were asked to say ”Yes” and allow the Parliament to devise a model afterwards.

Even dedicated republicans would not have copped that.

By holding a community-led Australian Constitutional Assembly well before any referendum, any fake arguments, urban myths and deliberate untruths can be floated, tested against the evidence, and answered or dismissed early in the process rather than cloud any referendum campaign.

The Albanese Government has proposed an Australian Constitutional Commission to help drive reforms but little information is available about it.

If it is like previous constitutional commissions – comprised largely of well-credentialled lawyers or jurists – it will not have the necessary roots in the community that are the advantage of bodies like our proposed Australian Constitutional Assemblies or the Irish version that are driven by average voters.

Under our proposal, the expertise of legal and constitutional experts can still be harnessed by an Assembly of average voters through submissions and public hearings.

Such a non-partisan process anchored in the Australian community and set to work long before referendum day is the key to long-overdue and beneficial reforms.

David Muir is chair of the Real Republic Australia and was a Queensland delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention in Canberra elected as part of the team led by former Brisbane Lord Mayor, the late Clem Jones, advocating a directly elected head of state.