THE REAL QUESTIONS THAT YOU SHOULD ASK ABOUT THE
REPUBLIC
===============================================
There are now many community meetings that attempt to educate
the people on a republic. Many of these meeting however are not
information sessions but dis-information sessions for they never
raise important legal considerations. Rather they concentrate on
emotional issues. This is fine as long as people know that there is
much more to be discussed; in general, they do not.
The attached Acrobat file (meetings.pdf) provides the vital legal
questions which must be answered for the public to have the full
information necessary to make a valid decision. These questions
must be answered by the republicans as the onus is on them to
justify the change they attempt to bring upon Australians.
Hence in a meeting on the republic it is worthwhile to force the
discussion onto the new Constitution and to highlight the potential
dangers in its clauses. For this reason the attached document
highlights, quite unintentionally, the major problems that the
republicans have in presenting their case. They have concentrated
on the emotional aspects of the republican issue and not on the
legal questions that introduce the new power structures of the
republic.
The provided questions demonstrate the legal deficiencies in the
republican model. Each question is preceded by a description of
the legal issue involved to place the issue into context.
For the edification of the reader this document ends wth the
standard republican �recipe� used at most republican meetings. It is
taken from Lakes Mail (September 16) where the �recipe� script
was written by Wendy Machin (Deputy Chair - Australian
Republican Movement). The Lakes Mail printed my response next
to Wendy Machin �recipe�; both are presented for balance. (After
this was published the Lakes Mail made repeated requests to the
republicans for a further response which was never forthcoming.)
Kerry Spencer-Salt B.E., LL.B (Hons)
The National Watchman
Australian Community Organisation
P.O. Box 136, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Phone : (02) 9360 0610
E-Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website : www.rockroll.com.au/watchman
Notes on Viewing Files
=======================
Files are are attached in Acrobat format and you must have an
Acrobat viewer to see what is attached.
As you may only be beginning on the internet you may not have
Acrobat. However it is a very common method of distributing
information on the net. For instance, it is the format that the
Australian Parliament uses to send Bills and Acts electronically.
Their web site
(http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/pdfinfo.htm) explains how it works
and allows you to download it.
If you do not have it already you will need it shortly. Adobe Acrobat
is free if you do not have it. I recommend that you take an
opportunity now and download it from either from the Parliamentary
site above or go direct to the maker of the software (Adobe) and
their download page.
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html
This latter site has more versions that can be downloaded. Should
you need a Macintosh version you will have to go direct to Adobe.
The following section of this message contains a file attachment
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---- File information -----------
File: meetings.pdf
Date: 24 Oct 1999, 7:52
Size: 182650 bytes.
Type: Acrobat
meetings.pdf
