I really don't see Why we can't simply remove
the Queen as our Head of State and then govern as we have done -
keeping everything the same (minus the monarch and
her representative).

We can Keep our parliamentary system and the position of PM
as is? It's not that complicated.

And -

Of course we can still have Royal visits and retain good
relations with the UK and the US as we've always done.

Problem solved.

I really don’t see why we shouldn’t retain the Queen and govern as we always have done.

You got most of it right, Foxy.

It was our constitutional monarchy that enabled us to get rid of Whitlam rather than have him stuffing everything he touched for a lot longer.

Just in passing, I think it is quite rude of folk who were welcomed into this country, often in their hour of need, to start telling us how to construct our government.

Well yes Hasbeen but some have been here long enough to have paid their dues.
The reason the Monarch or Gov General is there is because if you give
a politician an inch they will take a mile.
It took some hundreds of years to sort that problem into a workable
system. The Westminster system has been very successful.
In the major incident that we have had, it worked perfectly.
The PM who had lost control of parliament and was acting illegally was removed.
All politicians were sent to the people and they gave their verdict.
What system has worked better ?

Just been refreshing my memory re the history of Barbados, seems that there was quite a large English population before the real slave era when Africans were purchased from their fellow Africans to do the hard labour.
There were also Irish slaves as has been noted.
Little story on this aspect; I was having a yarn with John Pollock the then Secretary of theIrish National Association, in Sydney one day in 1956 or so.
We were making arrangements about the musicians for a coming dance when the phone rang and the Captain of a ship asked if some Irish lads in the crew would be welcome if they called in, John said that it’d be fine so.
About half an hour later four strapping young West Indians appeared much to our surprise.
They were indeed Irish and all had Irish passports, their grandfathers had claimed Irish citenship back in the1920s when the Irish Free State was set up.
We made them very welcome and they came to the dance the following Saturday night and had quite a good time.
They had never been to Ireland but Dublin was one of their future ports of call.

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Dear ttbn,

.

I, personally, do not feel comfortable conserving the remnants of British colonial monarchy in our Australian constitution. The British Crown continues to remain our head of state and by virtue of the inherent hereditary process of the monarchic system (albeit that of a constitutional monarchy), we Australians have no say in who is the head of state of our own country and nation.

That is totally undemocratic and, in my view, unacceptable. We are no longer a British penal colony, and our constitution should be modified accordingly. In fact, I consider modification long overdue.

We could, of course, simply abrogate our constitution and not have one – at least, not have a written, codified constitution in a single document, as is the case of the UK (which relies solely on its laws and rules under the auspices of a monarch relegated to participation in a so-called “constitutional monarchy”).

But abrogating both the constitution and the constitutional monarchy would leave us a bit bare. I don’t think that would be a good idea. The alternative would obviously be to create a republic with a corresponding constitution, as well as an elected president and democratic government.

For want of a better solution, that is what I, personally, would prefer. I see no justification whatsoever for continuing to perpetuate our old, hopelessly outdated colonial constitution that has proven impossible to amend. It dates from federation on 1 January 1901. Since then, 44 referendums have been held but only eight amendments have been passed, the last one nearly half a century ago (in 1977).

It is full of holes, is racist, and offers little or no protection for individual citizens’ rights. It says that New Zealand, which was also a British colony at the time, can also become part of the federation whenever it likes. Our old colonial constitution no longer corresponds to reality.

In reality, Australia needs a new constitution, a new head of state, and a truly national democracy.

It's high time we did something about it.

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