Have you noticed that most people don’t know anything about the Government processes that are their birthright? Though the subject is given cursory attention at schools most people never come to grips with much more than the facts that they vote for Government officials.

Government of any land is a complex matter, but it must work on the basis of some underlying principles or a pattern. While I am no expert on the subject, I have some notions about the underlying principles, so let me share them with you to stimulate your thinking.

If you think you have a better grip on the process than I do, let me know, so we can all work toward a better appreciation of what our forefathers passed to us.

Some Home Truths About Government

Australia’s forefathers, in creating the model for government of the nation they left as our inheritance, were aware of some home truths about government. History reveals that power hungry people will fight with their own people, even their own siblings or parents, in order take the reins of rulership.

Julius Caesar became Emperor of Rome by taking power to himself. Shakespeare’s play captures the human tension behind the issue of assumption of power. Centuries later, the Battle of Milvian Bridge enabled Constantine to take the role of Emperor by conquering others who could compete with him for the throne.

Jewish history tells of families and siblings who were murdered to allow such people as Athaliah (2Kings 11:1) to grab the reins of power.

A similar situation occurred in ancient Abyssinia (Ethiopia) after the time of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Judith, the wife of a provincial leader, attacked the royal city of Damo and killed the royal princes, numbering about 400. She then took the throne for forty years and passed it to five of her descendents. After that the original royal line was restored.

Got the picture? People lust for power and will use violent means to take it illegitimately.

Protecting Future Generations

The Australians who created the structure and shape of the new-born nation sought to protect future generations of their children, grand-children and so on. They did this by creating a structure of shared authority and checks and balances, to frustrate the plans of those who might wish to take over the country.

Sadly, most Australians do not know what the threats against them are, or what protections have been created to safeguard them. In such a situation it is easy to whittle away at the good and godly inheritance the Aussies have been given. At some time in the future an ignorant generation of Australians, looking only at some short-term interpretation of their nation and their inheritance, will vote to destroy the protections which they have been given in trust.

What our forbears created for us and passed to us is supposed to be protected by us and passed, undamaged, to future generations. But we are already seeing ignorant Aussies keen to throw it away, without the slightest notion of why it is valuable.

Each successive generation is being led a further step closer to throwing away the structure of our nation, for something they know little about. Very few, if any, have invested the amount of research, thought and national dialogue which went into crafting the Australian Constitution in the late 1800’s.

A Thumbnail Sketch

The nation of Australia was created from two general groups: the States; and the People. People carry personal authority based on Natural Law. The States carried authority vested in them under Maritime Law, when they were created as British colonies. Australia became a nation by the confluence of the agreement of the majority of the people, but only if they also represented all the States.

So the populace of Australia, and each State within Australia, united into a union for common benefit, or Common-Wealth. Thus we became the Commonwealth of Australia.

Each State was to remain an autonomous entity and manage its own affairs. The Commonwealth was not for the detriment of the existing States, but for their better good by cooperation with the other States.

Certain, limited responsibilities were assigned to the Commonwealth, Federal Government, but others were preserved by and kept to the States. The Federal Government could not pass laws to be forced on the States. The Federal Government could not take power from the States or force its dictates onto the States.

The Federal Government, then, had two houses of Parliament. One, the House of Representatives, represents the popular vote of the people, for the people’s choice of a representative in the National interest. The other house, the Senate, comprises an equal number of representatives from each of the States, to protect the rights of the States and to provide a check and balance to the populist ideas which may come from the House of Representatives.

A Protector of the People

With all of that in place, there is yet another layer of protection for the Australian people. That protection is provided by our Governor General. No law can be made binding, whether it comes from the House of Representatives or the Senate, unless it is signed by the Governor General.

The Governor General stands in the place of a Ruling Monarch. The Kings and Queens of Britain cannot hold office until they had sworn themselves to be bound by the Law of God and commit themselves for the good of the people.

The Governor General, similarly, is under the same regal responsibility, to uphold Divine justice and Godly standards, especially in the protection of the people.

In practice, a Governor General should send back to the Parliament any law that they see as not good for the people. They are our Head of State and the final protector and protection for the people of Australia.

That is why Sir John Kerr was within his rights to sack the Australian Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam back in 1975. As Governor General he was responsible to protect the Australian people. Note that the ruling by the Governor General to dismiss Gough Whitlam was not deemed illegal. It was not overturned. It did not have to be authorised by anyone outside Australia, such as the Queen of England or the British Parliament. The Australian Constitution gives the Australian Governor General the final authority as the effective Head of State of the Nation.

However, even though the Governor General is Australia’s Head of State he or she cannot assume power to their self. We are not only protected from the Parliament, we are protected from the Governor General!

The Lucky Country

One of the things that make Australia a “Lucky Country” is that we have the best out of other people’s experience. While America struggles with multiple, competing technologies Australia, as a late comer, could select the better options and avoid the quagmire or mistakes other nations get bogged in.

This is what happened when Australia’s leaders crafted the Australian Constitution. They were able to take the best of the American Constitution, Canadian Constitution, British System, and so on, with the benefit of hindsight as to how those legal structures worked.

Every Australian citizen is blessed with the world’s best Constitution. But they are ignorant of it and so will be sorely tempted to destroy it through lack of knowledge. Please do your bit to help each Aussie understand how blessed they are with the nation which their forefathers built for them and entrusted to them.