Synopsis
The Republican debate has raged since the early 1990's, and has had extensive media coverage. Despite this, agreement has not yet been reached on what form of Republic we should have, let alone any of the more complex legal issues that would follow such as how to splice the changes into our current Constitution, or how to replace it altogether.
Any change to the Commonwealth Constitution would require firstly an Act of Parliament and then a referendum, which Australians are traditionally resistant to, and this would need to be co-ordinated with related changes to the various State Constitutions. Numerous issues would need to be resolved, including who will replace the Monarch and what their powers would be, how do the States protect their individual rights, and how to remove from a Constitution the foundation upon which it was built without destroying the intent of the whole document. Simply 'excising' the Crown from such a rigid document would in itself prove a legal minefield.
…
