Do we want a republic? No.
Do we need a republic? No.
Are we going to be stupid enough to vote for a republic without knowing what sort of republic we are voting for?
Yes, if debate is stifled - which is what republicans want.
Asking people to vote in favour of a republic without explaining the model is outrageous as well as totally and utterly undemocratic.
We could end up with a choice yes, but a choice between two equally bad models - and no way of saying no to both.

Forrest Gumpp,

The issuing authority for the Yes/No case for the 1999 republic referendum, according to the paper copy that I am looking at at present, was the Australian Electoral Commission. I am sure that if you apply to them, they will be able to provide a WORD or PDF copy of the pamphlet. If you can advise an email address, I would be happy to forward you a WORD version for your information, but you may well prefer to get one from the AEC directly. They have a statutory duty under the Referendum (Constitutional Alteration) Act provisions to provide this at each referendum, and they did so in this case. What more can I say.

A few points of confusion in some of the above posts.

Choosing people at random does not make the group representitive, but it makes it very highly probable that it will be representitive. This is a question of statistics. For example if you wanted to know the average height of an Australian, just measure the average height of 100 randomly selected people. The result will be very, very close to the actual number and a mathematican could work out how close.

Of course if you wanted to design a new Opera House (something involving great skill or creative ability) choosing 100 people at random is not the best idea. It far better to run a design competition or create a panel of accomplished architects.

Greg Barns and Anna Krawec-Wheaton seem to be mixing up obtaining the desired outcomes against the actual technical detail. The 100 people will desire a republic (or not); they may want to elect the Head of State (or not); they may want the Head of State to be independent (or not); They may want the governor-general's role to be the same (or not).

The technical question is then to design a constitution that would meet these requirements.

Of course instead of getting what 100 people want (and get close to the answer), why not survey all the people and get the total answer? Then the technical people can design a constitution that would meet these requirements of all the people, not some.

This is not a radical idea. This is how professional people meet the expectations of their clients every day.

See McGarvie's book 'Democracy' for more on this point: http://www.mup.unimelb.edu.au/democracy

And for a great republican system: www.7gs.com/copernican