According to the full page advertisement 'Announcing the November 6 Referendums' the Electoral Commissioner has received writs issued by His Excellency the Governor-General on the following proposed laws: (Most of the rest of the the full page advertisement lists the details the "proposed law to ... republic with the Queen and Governor-General being replaced by a President ..." All pretty boring unless you were alerted by those ubiquitous "Constitution" T-junction advertisements asking "Which way do you want to go?". Surely 'No' to the proposed law means 'straight on', not change direction. So why the T-junction and no "Constitution" if we choose to go 'straight on'? If you want to understand, read the so-called 'consequential amendment' to Section 126 of the "Constitution" in context of the following. The existing Section 126 and its 'consequential' amendment are shown below. Existing Section 126 The existing Section 126, in Chapter VII, MISCELLANEOUS is: "The Queen may authorise the Governor-General to appoint any person, or persons jointly or severally, to be his deputy or deputies within any part of the Commonwealth and in that capacity to exercise during the pleasure of the Governor-General such powers and functions of the Governor-General as he thinks fit to assign to such deputy or deputies, subject to any limitations expressed or directions given by the Queen; but the appointment of such deputy or deputies shall not affect the exercise by the Governor-General himself of any power or function." 'Consequential' amendment According to the proposed law to establish a republic with the Queen and Governor-General being replaced by a President, the consequential amendment would be: Repeal the (existing) section and substitute: "This Constitution, and all laws made by the Parliament shall be binding on the courts, judges, and people of every State and of every part of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any State". It is interesting to compare the above with 'covering clause' 5 of the UK Act to constitute the Commonwealth of Australia: "This Act, and all laws made by the Parliament of the Commonwealth under the Constitution, shall be binding on the courts, judges, and people of every State and of every part of the Commonwealth, notwithstanding anything in the laws of any State; ... " After reading the above three quotations, its hard to avoid at least three important conclusions: 1. The proposed amendment of Section 126 is NOT a consequential amendment, but a seriously misleading deception apparently intended (at least by those MPs who voted for the bill) to conceal the legal truth that since Australia became an independent nation, all laws made by the Parliament of the Commonwealth under the Constitution, have not bound the courts etc! (Examples of the success of this deception are letters like Colin Laing's of Belbowrie, published in the Courier-Mail on 5 October 1999; but don't expect the Murdoch editors to publish the truth after they get their copy of this.) 2. With the above very serious and misleading deception 'hidden' under "Miscellaneous" 'consequences' in the the proposed law to establish a republic, even the 'double majority' required by Section 128 before the Governor-General could present it to the Queen for assent, would not prevent a void referendum. The proposed amendment of Section 126 is all too clearly NOT a consequential amendment. (Even if a contrary decision of the High Court was binding here, the Queen has both the common law of elections, and the advice of her Privy Council, and would not be so foolish as the Governor-General.) 3. Until the people of Australia can freely express their informed will according to Article 21(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Australia is and remains an Unconstitutional Monarchy, with both its inherent hazards (as demonstrated by the proposed law), and the almost unbounded opportunities for the good people of Australia to realise the vigorous federal democracy conceived on the 19th century goldfields, but subverted for most of the 20th century by some of the worst people of Australia. If you want to contribute to the rebirth of that vigorous federal democracy please forward this to as many as you can and discuss it with family and friends. You could try to involve your local newspapers, talk-back radio and even voluntary organisations. And don't forget local, state and federal MPs (who are probably as ignorant as you about Section 126). Your federal MPs should get a copy of this, although some are 'too busy' to read such things even if their staff do try! You are also welcome to reply to this e-mail with queries and suggestions, but please don't expect all the answers. The answers (including the fate of treacherous authors of the 'republic' proposal and their supporters) can come only out of the free and informed democratic process themselves, and will be more exciting, and liberating of our oppressed battlers, than anything one individual (monarchy/tyranny), or group (oligarchy/bureaucracy) could even imagine, let alone achieve. Of course if you are not yet ready for so much freedom, simply continue to acquiesce, and the Constitution is binding. For extra protection just submit to the UK laws, like all those who have taken the oath or affirmation of allegience to Her Majesty, including Justice Hayne of the High Court, who in Joose v ASIC last December, resolved the question "what law is to be applied in the courts of Australia?" by reference to the above covering clause 5 of the UK Act. Finally if you are wondering why the anonymous e-mail; its mainly to keep attention on the message, NOT the messenger. If you want to reply anonymously and/or privately, visit the hushmail site and open an account. Thanks for this opportunity Get HushMail. The world's first free, fully encrypted, web-based email system. Speak freely with HushMail.... http://www.hushmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- This is the Neither public email list, open for the public and general discussion. 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