Whitlam and Hawke permanently decoupled Australia from Britain, without a messy referendum, to deliver what is functionally a republic.

They left all the symbols and symbolism intact - the 'monarch', the 'monarch's representative', the 'crown'...

Kerr's actions were a backlash to Whitlam's covert, crypto-republicanism, which single-handedly, and disgracefully, resurrected from the near-dead the monarch's reserve powers - powers that had not been used in hundreds of years and were on the verge of being considered extinct.

Kerr should have given Whitlam the chance to call an election before sacking him. In any case the people decided the matter at the post dismissal election.

Whitlam could have called an election. He didn't.

Kerr forced one. Whitlam was wiped out. And Whitlam was wiped out again two years later.


A parliamentary deadlock, made entirely by politicians, was referred to the people for resolution. And the people resolved it.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 9^th, 2025 at 12:28pm:

A half senate election WITHOUT a House of Reps election at the same time.
Kerr rejected that.
Frazer proposed a House of Reps and half Senate election.
Whitlam rejected that.

Double dissolution, elections for the House and full Senate.

Sorted.

If Australia is functionally a republic - a crypto-republic if you will - what, exactly, would Australians be asked to vote on in a referendum on the matter?

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 9^th, 2025 at 9:16am:

Right now?!
Australia is a Leftism country of American Media isms and narratives


We all know that Australians not having a fight against all things British with absolutism rejection.
...makes America (Left) look bad.

WHITLEM WAS A CIA GIMP

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 9^th, 2025 at 2:40pm:

Nonsense.

Like the son of Pakistan, you are stuck, mentally, in the 60s.
Sclerotic old farts.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 9^th, 2025 at 6:50pm:

Why do you?

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 9^th, 2025 at 7:46pm:

You are silly and childish.

Do you know Sad Teapot? You two have very similar personalities.  Intensely prickly and not even shallow.
You aren't from Meanjin ( ) too, by any chance?

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 9^th, 2025 at 9:29pm:


:


Silly little puffed up 'mystic'. YOU know 330 milĺion Americans' attitudes to Australian politics??

How self-conceited and Bwwiyasnesque can you be?!??

For those of us who know what they're talking about, regarding American political sensibilities as opposed to Australia's (our politically conservative right being considered American leftist... Labor being considered extreme left, if not communist, by American standards), the likes of a Zohran Mamdani or a Bernie Sanders would not be out of place in the Australian (or British) leftist political landscape... i.e. Both Mamdani and Sanders are like American Gough Whitlams, or Harold Wilsons, not Staln or Mao.

America's 'shock horror' that New Yorkers have elected a communist arises from the American conflation of the terms communist, socialist and democratic socialist... they generally do not distinguish the three and their political history, at least since the spectre of Stalinism and Maoism entered into their national psyche, blinds them to any nuance.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 10^th, 2025 at 6:16am:

In fact, Mamdani's promises are modest, conservative, even, compared to what Whitlam promised and delivered

Medibank
The Trade Practices Act
Cutting tariff protections
No-fault divorce in the Family Law Act,
The Australia Council,
The Federal Court,
The Order of Australia,
Federal legal aid,
The Racial Discrimination Act,
Needs-based school funding,
The recognition of China,
The abolition of conscription,
The law reform commission,
Student financial assistance,
The Heritage Commission,
Nondiscriminatory immigration rules,
Community health clinics,
Aboriginal land rights,
Paid maternity leave for public servants,
Lowering the minimum voting age to 18 years
Fair electoral boundaries
Senate representation for the territories.

Frank wrote on Nov 10^th, 2025 at 7:27am:

So, you've never listened to, or engaged with, American, British, or Australian political commentators when they discuss American attitudes towards Australian (or British) politics relative to those of Americans, then.

Of course you didn't.. If you didn't pull it out of your arse, you don't comprehend it.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 10^th, 2025 at 8:05am:

So political commentators speak for entire countries. They speak for a unified American view of Australian politics, shared by Trump, Kackela, Mamdani, Bidden, Sharpton and Vance, Darlene, Buck and Chuck.

Got it. Homogeneity is their strength.

For his part, Bernie Sanders praises the Australian Labor Party as the world's best example of a functioning social-democratic party...

I'd bet Mamdani does as well.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 10^th, 2025 at 8:40am:


You simply do not see how ludicrously large claims you are making to support your various bees in your bonnet.

Not all American, British oor Australian political commentator speak for all of America, Britain, Australia. There is a wide range of political commentary, as are views in these countries.

What the ABC, BBC, the Granuiad, CNN, Crickey, etc give voice to is NOT representtive of the range of politica views. Nor is The Noticer, Sky, Fox, Breitbart or whatever.  Neither Anderson nor Rubin speak for their entire countries.


To shortcircuit any difference of views by declaring your own as THE KORREKT one is laughable and childish. Bbwiyanesque, to coin a phrase.

MeisterEckhart wrote on Nov 10^th, 2025 at 9:50am:

For contrast, listen to a John Anderson, Konstantin Kisin or Niall Ferguson, interview...

They're politically aligned in the British/Australian context...

While they might disagree, there's no awkward moments, no political misunderstandings, no lightbulb moments when one realises the other is talking at cross purposes...