Outline of an alternative model

A proposed model can be summarised as follows:

No changes are made within the current Australian Constitution as it is, except for a change to the second Covering Clause; “The provisions of the Act referring to the Queen shall extend to Her Majesty’s heirs and successors in the sovereignty of the United Kingdom.”

Additional sections are added to the Constitution to formalise a democratic and egalitarian method for selecting an Australian to act as the “Queen of Australia”. The process for selecting the Head of State would recur at regular time intervals always with new candidates, thus abandoning the hereditary origin of the office.

In an egalitarian process every citizen would have an equal chance to be nominated to run for the office of Head of State. The only way to do this is to restrict nominations to a small pool of people who are chosen at random from the whole population. The appropriate number of candidates is a topic that is open to debate; however, a number of the order of a couple of hundred people seems to be an appropriate starting figure.

The office of Head of State should also be something that an Australian could aspire to as a result of hard work and service to the community. One, and only one, special nominee could be chosen by the Prime Minister to run for office alongside the nominees who are chosen at random.

The final say as to who shall be elected to act as the “Queen of Australia” resides in the democratic will of the Australian people.

In a nutshell then, we keep the system as it is, Governor General and all, and elect an Australian to act as the “Queen of Australia”.