I think one of the more frustrating things about our current system is that we are wasting many worthy people on a largely (let's face it, pretty much entirely) ceremonial role. Opinion is divided on our current G-G, but in my opinion Quentin Bryce is a very worthy, intelligent, hard-working and eloquent lady. She is a good figurehead but, if her role had some meat to it, I think she would be able to be much more than that.

I know that, if I had a choice about who represented Australia on the international scene, I'd much rather Mrs Bryce over Ms Gillard, Mr Rudd, Mr Abbott or any of the other frontrunning politicians who have graced the stage in recent years.

Alternatively, in the progressive spirit that established this nation, why don't we dismantle the executive altogether? I know the Swiss system (which has no individual executive) is very different from ours - a smaller population, a smaller land area, a much larger number of political subdivisions - but they get by without a figurehead. Maybe we could think outside the box - rather than adopting or modifying an existing model, the (republican) Commonwealth of Australia could adopt a political system for the 21st, rather than 19th Century.