[thorn bird]

Heartily agree with you Sandy. My Great Grandfather was involved with the development of our constitution, in fact his signature appears on the original document. He worked for many years in the USA so no doubt was influenced by their political system.

Its a given that democracy is a very messy and inefficient way to govern, but having a whole bunch of "colonies" operating as separate countries was never going to work.

Given the times, circumstances and ethnic makeup, it could be said that our founding fathers did the best they could with our constitution, its worked fairly well over the years, but the makeup of the country has changed and unfortunately has not moved with the times and our political class is manipulating it to suit their own agenda.

Having the Monarch of England as our head of state was a function of our heritage, but its worked fairly well as whoever was on the throne acted as a figurehead only, with little if any political influence. Its our own political class that has warped the constitution, not the Queen.

What worries me more than anything should Australia decide to become a republic, besides the enormous cost to do so, Can we really trust the same political class not to draft a constitution that imposes even more control over the people and lack of transparency than they already have. They are not the same men of integrity who signed back in 1901.