Thank you to Mike Holt: http://www.restoreaustralia.org.au
http://www.restoreaustralia.org.au/here-is-the-vision/
RestoreAustralia is the only organization in Australia that has a strong, coherent vision for the future, coupled with a plan that offers hope, and a way for all Australians to get involved in creating the kind of future our forefathers fought so hard to provide. Unfortunately, our political parties hijacked that future, and attempted to steal our birthright and our freedoms from us.
But Australians are not as stupid as the parties thought, and we have woken up to the terrible crimes they have committed. The only reason we have not put a stop to them until now is because we had no way to make them act on the Will of the People. This article lays out the vision RestoreAustralia offers, and shows how we can implement the plan, united as Australians, and all working towards one goal; to put the power into the hands of the people to determine our future for ourselves.
Restore Australia’s Vision Statement
It is now obvious to many, that Australia is a rudderless (no pun intended) ship drifting according to the whims of political apparatchiks, the dictates of foreign governments, and organizations like the United Nations.
We are no longer a united People. We are divided by the two major political parties and the system they have created.
Mike Holt Patriot and CEO of RestoreAustralia
The two major parties have engineered an electoral process that ensures only one or other of them will form the Government. They have even ensured that the long-suffering taxpayer funds their election campaigns! This is NOT democracy.
The stated aims of the major parties do not reflect the aspirations and needs of the people of Australia.
There is no accountability and it seems that all political activity is aimed at gaining or retaining power. The parties seem to believe that once voted in they have a mandate to do whatever they like; regardless of their promises, and regardless of the wishes of the People. The only recourse open to the People is to vote the other party in at the next election in three years time.
These three year, “big-bang” elections are usually the signal for wholesale changes of direction. As a result, the “Ship of State” lurches from one side of the political divide to the other, creating uncertainty and turmoil. Instead of stability and a certain path forward ensuring progress and prosperity; we are subjected to new laws and taxes as the new Government sets out to impose their agenda on the Nation.
Our current politicians have NO VISION!
So, what is Restore Australia’s vision?
RestoreAustralia envisages a society in which power is restored to the People. A society in which those aspects best conducted by a government (and ONLY those aspects), are conducted by a government made up of true Representatives of the People. (Not representatives of political parties). A government that is continuously and directly accountable to the People. A government elected by a rolling election process that ensures a continual injection of new blood and retention of some long-serving members to provide stability and continuity.
Restore Australia envisages a society with a fair and equitable JUSTICE system (rather than the LEGAL system we currently endure. A society in which the People have a sense of ownership and belonging; engendered by a system of freedoms and obligations applicable to all.
And Restore Australia envisages a Nation freed from the grip of the multi-national corporations, multi-national banks and the international monetary system that is currently strangling so many nations to death.
How to achieve this vision?
The only way “We the People” can change all this is to amend our Constitution to create a more rational and democratic system.
Fortunately, we have the power to do this enshrined in Section 128 of our current Constitution.
Before we can restore sanity to our government system we must amend the Constitution to restore power to the people!
Unfortunately, we do not have the power to initiate the necessary referendums needed to put the changes in place. The politicians have that power but have displayed no enthusiasm for initiating referendums to make the changes the People want. Instead, they fiddle around with issues like gay marriage, euthanasia, recognition of “local government”, and recognition of aborigines. Of course these are important but they pale into insignificance when compared to the big issues that require attention if our nation is to survive and thrive.
So, the first step must be to secure for the People the right to initiate referendums to amend our Constitution.
Once having secured that right, the People can then gradually change our Constitution to reflect the sort of society in which they wish to live and to achieve the system of government under which they are prepared to operate.
But what does this mean?
Let’s look at some of the most serious problems we face, and examine how a new Constitution could help resolve them.
Bad Treaties
Various Australian Governments have committed Australia to many, very bad, military, political and trade treaties, with the United Nations, the USA, and various other nations or groups of nations. Very few of them were negotiated from a position of strength. As a result, we have been encumbered with agreements that do us more harm than good. All these treaties change our Sovereignty and therefore our Constitution. They should not have been ratified without the explicit approval of the People.
RestoreAustralia advocates tearing up those agreements and negotiating new ones instead. The People must have the final say in the agreements to which we want to be a party by voting on them at a referendum. Our future is too precious to allow politicians to have the final say.
Basic Law
The basic law of our land is the Constitution and clearly, the one we have now is not working.
We only have to look around us to see that it is out of date, and that it doesn’t provide proper guidance for our law makers. And even where it provides solid guidance, our lawmakers frequently bypass it, or undermine it.
It is difficult to say whether this is a deliberate attempt to undermine our Constitution, or if they are just plain ignorant. Either way, our system of government has become a disaster.
And because we don’t have a solid legal and social foundation we have ended up in the situation we find ourselves today. We have a legal system, but not a justice system. We have politicians beholden to their party policies, but not accountable to the people who elected them. We have foreign policy dictated by overseas interests. Our government and the banking system are plunging us deeper into debt. But worst of all, we are a nation divided.
Australia cannot continue along this road and expect to function successfully into the future.
Restore Australia has a different vision for our future: A future where all Australians are aware of our social and legal obligations and are ready to work together to create a nation of which we can all be proud.
We are all Australians. It doesn’t matter if we are indigenous peoples, descendants of the First Fleet, old-world immigrants, or more recent ones. As long as we love Australia and we are willing to obey Australian laws, we are all one.
Unity has got lost amidst the constant political bickering and lack of direction from our “leaders”. No matter what the government in power proposes, the opposition will oppose, irrespective of merit. This has fractured our society today.
Restore Australia’s vision is for a government that is united in working towards a common goal: creating a better future for all Australians.
How do we achieve this goal of a better future?
Instead of three tiers of government we envisage only two – a Federal Government and Regional Governments. Many people have complained for years about too many tiers in government and the problems that arise between States and Territories on the one hand, and the National Government on the other. Add to that the local councils, and you have a potential cooking malfunction…” Who puts what into the pot”?
We could achieve a more cohesive society simply by changing the electoral system.
The Electoral System
Firstly, change is needed to the structure of the electorates. Instead of having 150 large electorates of tens of thousands of voters, we propose changing the boundaries to make smaller electorates of up to 5,000 voters. This simple change would make it easy for anyone who wants to stand for election to get to know the people in their electorate; and we would know our representatives.
Australian voters deserve to decide how we are governed
The next step would be to create approximately 100 regions consisting of up to 250,000 voters. Each region would have a regional government to provide all the services that State governments and local councils currently provide.
Each regional government would elect one of their members to represent the region in the National Parliament.
The National Parliament would decide the policies that would apply across the entire nation.
We propose that, at both levels of government, Members would sit at a round table and that everyone would be entitled to an equal say. There would be no “government” or “opposition” under this system – all members would vote on all issues; and only those securing a 75% vote would be passed.
At each level, each representative would be directly accountable to their constituents, not to a political party, and would be subject to recall, which would, of course, necessitate a fresh election in that electorate.
The result would be a smaller, more streamlined government directly accountable to “We the People”.
Taxes
Imagine this:
- Never having to submit an annual tax return.
- No need for Businesses to waste time filling in taxation statements.
- Everyone paying the same percentage of tax, no matter how rich or poor they are.
- And best of all, doing away with most of the 20,000 bureaucrats in the Tax Office.
This could be achieved simply by adopting a 0.1% debit tax on withdrawals as proposed in the Draft Constitution.
The banks would administer it by automatically deducting 0.1% every time they process a withdrawal and forwarding this amount to a publically owned central bank. Brazil, Columbia, and Ecuador have already implemented this tax system successfully and it was the taxation system used in Norfolk Island until recently.
We also propose in the Draft Constitution, to pay a dividend on the profits generated through the harvesting of our natural resources. So, instead of paying taxes we would actually gain a dividend!
Legal Vs a Justice System
The law appears to be asleep, or worse, making wrong decisions for political reasons
Currently we have a legal system that is not achieving just outcomes; is plagued by inordinate delays, appointees are political rather than the best for the job, and justice is priced out of reach of most ordinary Australians.
Instead of this legal system (referred to as “Common Law”), the Draft Constitution proposes a justice system. Instead of the British case law legal system….where decisions from the past are used to determine the outcome of a case today; we envisage a system in which decisions are made purely on the basis of administeringjustice.
Banking and Finance
Our 1901 Constitution clearly states that only the Federal Government has the right to create money (see S. 51 (xii) & 115).
However, our governments have licensed privately owned banks to take over that function to a large degree and the banks now create most of our money as debt.
When you go to a bank to borrow money the bank does not have the money sitting in a vault. Instead, they type the loan amount into your account and the same amount into their ledger as an asset. As you pay back that loan the bank’s asset is reduced and finally cancelled out. However, the interest you pay is accrued by the bank as profit.
That profit should, and could, accrue to the Nation – not to private banks.
We envisage that ALL money be created by the state and that the profit from that be credited to the National Accounts to be used to build infrastructure and to provide other services to the People.
Under the banking system proposed by the Draft Constitution, the People’s Bank will loan money to the banks at a flat 3% interest rate. They, in turn, will lend it out at a flat 5% rate. This would immediately create confidence in our banking and financial system. As well, we would no longer be dependent on the international financial system that determines the value of our dollar based on conditions over which we have no control.
Our Freedoms and Rights
We are dependent on Common Law and laws passed by our politicians to “protect” our rights and freedoms. But as we have seen lately, what the politicians give through the law they can just as easily take away.
Freedom comes from within first
We envisage enshrining our freedoms and rights in the Constitution where no politician can ever interfere with them. Only “We the People” can amend the Constitution by voting in a referendum.
Unfortunately, only our politicians have the power toinitiate a referendum, and they are not doing that! The politicians have proposed only 44 referendums over the last 113 years and only eight have been approved by the people.
Clearly, this cannot continue. A Constitution must be a dynamic document that reflects the will and aspirations of the people. “We the People” must have the right to initiate a referendum.
Under the proposal in the Draft Constitution, allAustralians would be considered equal before the law and in our society, irrespective of gender, colour, creed, race or religion.
Just look at any government form and ask yourself which question has always struck you as racist?
Yes, that question asking if you are an Aborigine or Torres Strait Islander. That really means these two groups ofAustralians are still not considered as equal as the rest of us – or is it that we are not as equal as them, considering the huge Aboriginal government funded industry that has grown over the last few decades? This is intolerable.
The Draft Constitution treats everyone as equals and therefore entitled to the same protections and opportunities; and to the same obligations. Any freedoms and rights we enjoy should always have obligations attached to them.
Serving our Nation
We envisage that every able-bodied Australian should be required to give something back to the nation. We envisage this contribution being made as a service to the Nation: It could be either military or civilian. Only the disabled would be exempt.
The Draft Constitution also proposes that we would go to war only after a majority Yes vote in a referendum. The Draft Constitution also states that Australia would be a friend to all nations, ready to trade with all. Our military would be solely for the defence of our Nation.
So, what is the way forward?
Restore Australia is the public face of The Foundation for National Renewal, a fast-growing people’s movement of concerned citizens around Australia working to amend the broken political system and restore power back into the hands of the people.
The aim of this organisation is to unite the People of Australia in the writing of a new Constitution and to facilitate the adoption of that new Constitution.
The hard work has already been done. Over the past 13 years, The Foundation for National Renewal (FNR), our parent, registered, not-for-profit organization, in consultation with hundreds of ordinary Australians has produced and published the First Draft of a whole new Constitution for Australia.
We have made the Draft Constitution available to everyone. It is in most libraries around the nation. It is available in book form from The Foundation. And it is available for free download from here: http://www.restoreaustralia.org.au/download-free-pdf-draft-constitution/
The idea now is to involve all Australians in reviewing that first draft, amending it as seen fit, and then publishing a Final Draft.
We are asking all Australians to get involved in reading the Draft Constitution, thinking about it, and then attending a Regional Unity Congress in your area some time in 2014 to discuss it with other Australians and to suggest amendments.
In 2015, we will collate all suggested amendments and present them to a National Congress open to any Australian who wishes to have a say in the future of our nation, to vote on the amendments.
Once we have achieved that, RestoreAustralia will publish the final version of the Draft Constitution.
The task then will be to present it to the People in the form of a plebiscite to secure endorsement of the way forward. Once that is achieved, a series of referendums can be conducted to adopt the necessary changes to our current Constitution. We envisage that, when most provisions are in place, a major referendum would be held to formally adopt the whole new Constitution.
Time is running out!
We cannot afford to hesitate any longer. Time is running out and if we don’t act now we will continue to get more of the same as we slide slowly but surely into debt and social inequality that will become ever harder to fix. We have already seen what has happened overseas. Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Ireland are in grave trouble because they are all enmeshed in the same 2-party system we are.
Only Iceland has managed to pull themselves out of the mess greedy banks and inept politicians created for them. They did it by enacting a new Constitution that contains many of the ideas our Draft Constitution proposes. They have shown us what is possible. Now it is time for us to do the same.
RestoreAustralia is making it possible for everyone to get involved in creating a better future for us, our children, and their children. But it is up to each and every one of us to get involved and take action. Are you ready to take that first step?
You can take action by doing any of the following:
- Join us on Facebook: RestoreAustralia (MikeHoltRA). Each day messages are posted on our page offering suggestions for everyone to take action. We are coordinating these activities so that united we have a huge impact; we can make a real difference with a big voice.
- Get involved and register your interest in joining a Unity Congress. These will be a series of meetings of concerned citizens to read, discuss and suggest amendments to the Draft Constitution. We would like to see every Australian voter get involved in writing a real AUSTRALIAN Constitution, by the people, for the people. You don’t need any specialized knowledge about law or the Constitution. The idea is to end up with a Constitution that will create a better future based on the needs and aspirations of “We the People”. To register your interest in joining, or helping organize a Congress in your area, Click here.
- Help us get signatures on the petition to support Senator Madigan’s Senate Bill to amend Section 128 to give all voters the right to initiate referendums. With this power any voter could start a referendum to amend our Constitution — a power that is essential to bringing about the change we can all see is needed.
- Talk to your friends, work colleagues, even strangers on the street about the activities RestoreAustraliasupporters are engaged in every day.
- Sign up to Become a Member — we can’t do this on our own – we need your support. So please lend your support by becoming a member.
- If you are too busy with your own life to get actively involved, you can still help by donating to support our work. Click here to Donate
- Or contact us to discuss your ideas or to offer any suggests or help. We welcome everyone’s contributions.http://www.restoreaustralia.org.au
