Constitutional Convention - A New Democracy for a New Australia

Ever since Federation in 1901, Australia has remained a settler-colonial constitutional monarchy with a foreign head of state. This is the greatest roadblock holding Australia back from becoming a truly sovereign nation. As long as we remain shackled to the symbols of the past, we will never be able to move forward.

The Eureka Party supports the establishment of a Constitutional Convention to initiate public consultation to replace Australia’s existing colonial Westminster constitution with a new constitution reflecting a vision of a sovereign Australian New Democracy that is based on Australian history, customs and traditions for its foundation.

This seeks to subsume the principle of ‘parliamentary supremacy’ to the principle of ‘popular supremacy’ while maintaining the institutional core of the Westminster system (Parliament, federalism, independent judiciary).

As part of this new constitution, the following components are proposed, though parts may be enshrined into our present constitution by referendum if the opportunity arises:

Political Bill of Rights

The Eureka Party supports the introduction of a robust, modern Political Bill of Rights which includes the following rights applying to all persons on Australian soil:

• Freedom of speech, religion, association and assembly;

• An absolute right to freedom from state or corporate surveillance, data collection, monitoring or interception of any kind without a judicial warrant issued by an independent court on the basis of probable cause, strictly limited in scope, duration, and purpose;

• An absolute right to freedom from searches and seizures without a judicial warrant issued on the same basis as above;

• A right to due process, protection from double jeopardy or compelled self-incrimination, and a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury, and access to free legal aid for the purpose of defence in a court of law for all criminal proceedings;

• Protection from excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishments, including capital punishment;

• Protection from laws or judicial rulings which discriminate on the basis of immutable characteristics;

• Protection from laws enforcing or prohibiting procedures or the administering of medical, cosmetic or recreational substances against the will of the individual

• A right to bear arms for the strict purpose of national defence, limited to those sound of body and mind and conditional upon proper training (may be deferred);

• Protections for unenumerated rights and against government invocation of national security, public order, public safety, or other similar considerations without publicly disclosed evidence demonstrating necessity, with assurance of a strict standard of proportionality.

Economic Bill of Rights

The Eureka Party supports the introduction of an Economic Bill of Rights which includes the following rights for Australian citizens:

• The right to a full-time job at a living wage;

• The right to affordable housing, food, and energy;

• The right to free healthcare, childcare and education;

• Collective bargaining and unionisation rights for workers, small farmers and independent contractors, and the right to strike in defence of their economic rights;

• A surplus produce buy-back guarantee for small farmers at a fair price;

• The right to private property and protection from compelled nationalisation of private property following the initial wave of nationalisations in other policy areas of the program;

• The enshrinement of democratic management of state-owned enterprises via workers’ councils.

Establishment of a ‘Eureka Republic’

The Eureka Party supports the central vision of the establishment of a ‘Eureka Republic’, with the following key changes:

• Abolition of constitutional monarchy in favour of a democratically elected ceremonial president, also recallable by petition;

• Replacement of the Australian Blue Ensign with the Eureka Flag as Australia’s national flag;

• The abolition of all upper houses at the state level in favour of unicameral Legislative Assemblies in every state;

• The introduction of two new states; the State of Capricornia (North Queensland), and the State of the Northern Territory;

• Shifting the judicial branch from government appointed-judges serving lifetime terms towards judges selected by sortition from a qualified pool with shorter terms;

• The replacement of all current Local Government Areas with direct democratic Neighbourhood Assemblies (NAs), Community Councils (CAs) selected by sortition from NAs, and Regional Conventions (RCs) bringing together CAs into larger local confederations;

• The right for electors to petition for the recall of any representative who has ceased to faithfully represent them and trigger a by-election;

• The right for the people to petition for the dissolution of the Parliament and the calling of a general election;

• The right for the people to petition to initiate a referendum on any proposed law or constitutional amendment, or veto passed legislation;

• A permanent ban on foreign ownership of critical and strategic national assets, and a ban on foreign or corporate ownership of prime agricultural land;

• The enshrinement of a National Sovereign Development Bank as a public guardian of state-owned productive assets, with any privatisation requiring approval by a national referendum;

• A requirement that any declaration of war or offensive military action outside Australian territory or maritime boundaries must first be approved by a national referendum, with explicit exemption for homeland defence against territorial or maritime aggression on the part of a hostile army;

• The establishment of a Universal Citizens’ Army, obliging every citizen to undergo mandatory military training and participate in the defence of the nation if called upon under conditions of a direct invasion of Australian territory.