2 March

Nicola Roxon, Labor Shadow Attorney-General, writes about Charles as a relic of another era and claims that his visit was completely overshadowed by that of the future Queen of Denmark in a feature article in The Australian. She says that the simultaneous royal visits command us to think again about our odd Constitution which provides for someone so far away, so disconnected with our country as our head of state. And she outlines Labor’s approach to the change: expansion of the debate by going back to the basics and asking what we think the role of our head of state should be; what powers should they have and what should be their relationship to the Government? Should their powers be limited by words in the Constitution or simply by convention? Should we codify the existing system or opt for another model like the one in Ireland?