mxx1's avatar

Well I never…

“Constitution of Queensland 2001

An Act to consolidate particular laws relating to the Constitution of the State of Queensland

Preamble

The people of Queensland, free and equal citizens of Australia-

(a) intend through this Constitution to foster the peace, welfare and good government of Queensland; and

(b) adopt the principle of the sovereignty of the people, under the rule of law, and the system of representative and responsible government, prescribed by this Constitution; and

(c) honour the Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the First Australians, whose lands, winds and waters we all now share; and pay tribute to their unique values, and their ancient and enduring cultures, which deepen and enrich the life of our community; and

(d) determine to protect our unique environment; and

(e) acknowledge the achievements of our forebears, coming from many backgrounds, who together faced and overcame adversity and injustice, and whose efforts bequeathed to us, and future generations, a realistic opportunity to strive for social harmony; and

(f) resolve, in this the 150th anniversary year of the establishment of Queensland, to nurture our inheritance, and build a society based on democracy, freedom and peace.”

But don’t worry, they corrected themselves on the next page…

“Section 3A. Effect of preamble. The Parliament does not in the preamble— (a) create in any person any legal right or give rise to any civil cause of action; or (b) affect in any way the interpretation of this Act or of any other law in force in Queensland.”

After that the whole thing just focuses on the mechanisms of government and the salaries of MPs and judges, etc. The people don’t get a look in, apart from the preamble, which is immediately repealed a page later.

I love our politicians. So unself-consciously self-serving.

But COVID shows us that the states are effectively more powerful than the feds, and having our own state constitution is an opportunity to right all the ills in our system. That is fix it at the state level.

My take on it:

  1. Add some overriding principles to the start of the preamble, like;      
    • A. “This constitution is founded on the principle ‘don’t be a cunt'” or near similar concepts
    • B. “The primary purpose of this constitution and the laws created under it is to protect and nourish the people of Qld”
    • C. “It is not the purpose of this constitution and the laws created under it to protect people from themselves”
  2. Remove section 3A to bring us in line with the Americans. Under law, we need rights to go with all our obligations. Otherwise there’s no consideration and the compact doesn’t work.
  3. Add a section on the inviolable freedom of expression of the people and entities in Qld, which cannot be sliced and diced away by special purpose legislation.
  4. Add a section that says Qld has the right under it’s Constitution to opt out of any specific federal laws.
  5. Add a section that says any region of Qld can opt out of any specific legislation dreamt up by the state parliament in Brisbane.
  6. Make voting in Qld voluntary and non preferential.
  7. Limit individual parliamentarians to two terms in total.
  8. Ban the collaboration of all state politicians outside of the parliamentary process, under threat of incarceration. No parties, in effect.
  9. Put the judicial and police systems under the control of a bureacracy that reports to the governor.
  10. Force the Commonwealth to hand over all taxes collected from the state less a fixed % for the feds to waste on submarines, utopia projects, their own costs, etc. Not a cent more or less.
  11. How to elect the governor? The pool has to be from constitutional lawyers that aren’t barristers. Thereafter I think you need a super majority, say 90% of parliamentarians, agreeing with the final candidate. Then lock them up, Vatican style, until they can agree on a candidate.
  12. For the next, say 10 years, only allow the formation of new laws when they are accompanied by the repeal of two old laws.
  13. A plaintiff being prosecuted under a law which can be shown to have been only intermittently enforced can use this fact to argue for a not guilty verdict. Any such law is automatically repealed.
  14. Due to the Doctrine of Tenure, the law in Australia holds that the Crown has absolute ownership of all of Australia – not withstanding any native title claims – we are all just tenants. In Qld we should transfer all land rights from the king to a trust managed by a group of indigenous elders on behalf of the indigineous people of Qld. No effective change – its just good optics.
  15. Finally, we need a mechanism to change the constitution that is out of the hands of the politicians. The governor is in charge of managing the constitution and must operate plebiscites on proposed changes if it can be shown by any mechanism that 5% of the population have explicitly signed up to promote a specific change.