Paul,
Would you sooner have one man, say John Howard, telling us that we are going to invade a sovereign country because he believed it was the right thing to do or have the mechanism in place to allow the whole country to vote on the issue even if it did take a while.
As I understand the law, it does not take eighteen months for it to be voted on but it must be finalized within eighteen months.
A small right wing party brought on the ban on minarets but the whole of Switzerland had to vote on it to have the ban brought in.
That to me is democracy.

Sarnian

I'm sure there is a place in our society for referendum. A country as large as Australia 500,000 sigs would suit, with an absolute majority only required to get it passed, none of this States rubbish. But I still have concerns about 'ratbags' putting up questions and then having media sensationalism pushing their view unfairly. The big end of town can pour vast amounts of money into a campaign, how are the arguments financed? Its still going to be a slow process. Take the proposed mining tax, big mining would pour millions into a campaign to bring it down, the media would back them. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq, I'm totally opposed, but what the voters have to remember is a vote for the Conservatives is a vote for war, vote for Abbott and if there is a war around the corner he'll be right in it, war oils the wheels of capitalism, they can't do without it. Maybe a referendum to see if we want referendums is in order. I still like to vote for a party, The Greens, who are committed and have real policies and are not beholding to big business. They wont go to war unless Australia is in real danger and they wont be influenced unduly by any pressure group, with The Greens what you see is what you get.

p/s A vote for Rudd may well be a vote for war.

The Prime Minister,Kevin Rudd, recently co-wrote and published a children's book called "Jasper and Abby and the Great Australia Day Kerfuffle".

Given the Australian government's lamentable response at the UN to the Israeli army's assault on the people of Gaza and its even more woeful response to the subsequent United Nations' report condemning aspects of the assault as a war crime, I wonder if the Prime Minister would care to write a book for the Palestinian children still alive in besieged Gaza.

He can dedicate it to the 350 or so Palestinian children who were killed in the air raids and subsequent on the ground military incursion and to the many children who were maimed and injured. He could also hold a competition amongst the members of the "fair go for all" party, the Australian Labor Party, to see who can come up with the best warm and fuzzy title.