In addition to the reasons given by Senator Singh , two other good reasons for changing Australia 's monarchical system are that it is demeaning to Australia 's status as an independent nation , and just plain silly .

The Queen can never be an Australian ,despite any monarchist descriptions of her as Queen of Australia . She and her progeny will always be hereditary aristocrats , chosen to perform their public roles for no reason other than accident of birth .

The British too should retire them permanently , but whether or not they do so , Australia should retire them from any role under the Australian constitution .

The only real function which the British monarch performs in Australia is to sign written instruments appointing the Governor General and State Governors . This adds nothing to Australia 's stability or democracy .

figure/heads of state
yes..the multihydra beast

lets go

""When our new democratic nation..."""

state

""was born out of..the federation movement, through...the granting of a yes..or no vote,..albeit one..with limited franchise.""

yep
the inside joke is it was 'only'' arround 37.000
what was eligable to vote..[ie had money/land]

ie the landed gentry
looking to give the rum corpse..another job..
now the abo-s..are terror/nullus-ed..into british peon-hood

""No other nation..in history had been created through the vote.""

isral was created by a colonisation letter
australia was created by colonisation licence
[..'under the rules and acts of war'[acording to georges order]

""More common were nations born out of war,
rebellions or great heroism.""

why ya avoiding colonisation?

like indonesia/iran/israel etc etc

""From that time on,..the constitution
has only been successfully amended,..through referenda,..eight times.""

and has become a symbol
or an act of the colonisation of yet other peoples lands
and installing them on farm prison camps or islands

death by poisening flour
and lead bullits..nothing like a nig ger hunt..eh wot?

pip pip and all that ol school tie
the faceless men..propping up a figure head
every dictaitor..is only the figure head front man

why is this front man important
ya can kill them...and put in your own man

again and again
heck its a right royal lie

thats why we write the wikseed/wikigeld treaty
but heck its wasted on those swallowing right to rule
or thinking the figure head/front man[woman]..is really running things

lol

Against my better judgement I will attempt to contribute to this discourse. (one under god - do you ever proof read what you write? Meaningless scribble to people who are time poor). Senator, I'm sure you mean well but I would just like to point out that the World is pretty chocka with Republics that make a mockery of anything approaching democratic values, so your point about only them having "the political institutions with which to etch out national values and a national identity" - whatever the hell that means - comes off a tad limp. I HATE to agree with John Howard about anything but he was right when he said this is a low, low (like limbo low) priority for Australia.

Do we need any sort of head of state? The head of state in Australia is generally a public figure and another mouth to feed at the public trough. If the ceremony is important enough the prime minister can go and generally does. For less important occasions the deputy prime minister or some designated person can represent the government. The US does without a head of state. It is enough to have a head of government. The head of state is a standin for a constitutional monarch. We need neither a constitutional monarch nor a standin for one.

david f, forgive me as I agree with most of what you say. But US does have HOS - Barack currently occupies that possie. The Leader of the House of Reps (lower house of Congress) is probably equivalent to our PM - but that's not really that important. Their HOS has power of Veto over Legislation and knows how to use it(ours does too but only in the theoretical sense - the GG would be out of their arse the second they even considered it). We have a pretty sensible, low stress arrangement - 1975 was a blip - whereas in the US they have all the SuperPAC and other funding issues that deliver a truly elitist electoral process that we really don't to replicate here (I hope).

Australians did for 50000 years without a head-of-state, so why this urgent need now? What a silly expense from our tax-money!

As for me, having received my Australian citizenship before 1994, I will remain loyal to my queen, whether she remains the Australian head of state or otherwise!
I didn't know her before, but being here I came to love her and no silly figure-head is going to change that!