LAMING SHOULD RE-CONSIDER HIS PRIVATE MEMBERS' BILL

Back on 31 March 2014, Judith Kerr, in an article in the Redland City Bulletin, advised that (Andrew) Laming airs republican view.

The article went on to say in part:

Andrew Laming, the member for the Federal Division of Bowman, declared that he was a republican just five days after Prime Minister Tony Abbott reinstated knights and dames into the Australian honour system.

Mr Laming said the best thing about being a republican was enjoying a steamy autumn day by the pool in Redlands while other MPs were in Canberra for the swearing in of the country's 26th Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove on Friday.

Sir Peter was the first man to be knighted under Mr Abbott's revived honours system.

On Tuesday, 3 February 2015 the following blog appeared on Andrew Laming's website:

Federal Member for Bowman Andrew Laming has today announced he will introduce a Private Members’ Bill, abolishing Knights and Dames from the Australian Honours System.

Mr Laming said today’s decision to make the Order of Australia Council solely responsible for honours awards, including Knighthoods and Dames, was “inadequate”.

“Today’s announcement has failed to address the concerns and feelings of the electorate at large,” Mr Laming said.

He said the bill would call for the termination of any future Australian knighthoods and dames, while retaining all current recipients of the honour.

 The bill would reaffirm the Order of Australia (OA) as the nation’s highest award, as was the case with the previous system, he said.

“I will be submitting this bill to the Selection Committee in the coming days,” Mr Laming said.

But what is Mr Laming wanting? He has said that "to make the Order of Australia Council solely responsible for honours awards was  "inadequate". Clearly, he believes that some other organisation, e.g. the Parliament, be involved.

He also seems to be confused about what the Order of Australia is. One thing it is not is an award in itself. It is an order established by Letters Patent under the Queen's sign manual. The Order consists of several levels i.e. Knight/Dame, Companion, Officer, Member and Medal of the Order. Mr Laming should also note that the Victoria Cross for Australia is the highest award in Australia's Honours system!

The recent spill of the Liberal Party on 9 February brought to light the numerous back bench republicans such as the likes of Mr Laming and his front bench republican friends  Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop. Coupled with the Australia Day's honour to Prince Philip, these people, along with much of the media in complete hysteria and sounding like a bunch of squawking sulphur crested cockatoos on the fly, left much amusement for others.

On reflection, Mr Laming should consider this. At the 1999 republican referendum the constituents of the federal division for Bowman handed in a resounding 61% NO vote; additionally, there was not one Polling Place that gave a YES vote!

Maybe Mr Laming would like to reconsider his desire to submit his bill into the Parliament given that information.

Can MALCOLM TURN BULL into GOLD Ingots?

Can Malcolm turn bull into gold ingots?

Probably not; but he certainly can spin!

Back in June 2013, Malcolm Turnbull, the Liberal Party’s failed opposition leader, and Australia’s best “worst” treasurer ever, Wayne Swan, fronted up together to a media pantomime to spruik a “fresh” push for a republic.

Wayne Swan warbled his defence of a republic with little or no technical reason for change but pointed to a recent OECD survey which indicated that Australia is the best place to live. That being the case, why would one want to change the existing stable form of government that allowed for such an assessment?

Malcolm, on the other hand, played on constitutional technical aspects to try and convince us to make change to a republic and also offered up the cyber sphere as a probable way to seek more engagement to achieve that end.

But Malcolm's assertions about the history of the evolvement of the Australian crown are obscure and don't reflect reality. Anything said by Malcolm at this pantomime meeting becomes transparently void if one reads the Final Report of the Constitutional Commission 1988. This report was authored by Sir Maurice Byers CBE QC, Professor Enid Campbell OBE, The Hon Sir Rupert Hamer KCMG, The Hon E G Whitlam AC QC and Professor Leslie Zines and offers the correct pathway of evolvement of Australia from colony/dominion to an independent and sovereign country.

The 1988 Constitutional Commission also stated that:

The disappearance of the British Empire has therefore meant that the Queen is now Sovereign of a number of separate countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, amongst others. As Queen of Australia she holds an entirely distinct and different position from that which she holds as Queen of the United Kingdom or Canada. The separation of these 'Crowns' is underlined by the comment of Gibbs CJ in Pochi v Macphee[104] that 'The allegiance which Australians owe to Her Majesty is owed not as British subjects but as subjects of the Queen of Australia.'

But Malcolm's rash and insane support for Global Warming and hate of the Australian crown is buried in his DNA.

He wants the crown out of the way so that Australia can be absorbed by some monolithic global government and supports Global Warming so that companies such as Goldman Sachs can make money out of markets such as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and which has done so since its inception in 2005.

The moral of the story here is that you should never believe everything that Malcolm Turnbull says is the gospel truth!