Mr SLIPPER (9:11 PM) —I am very pleased to support the Constitution Alteration (Establishment of Republic) Bill 1999 . This government has promised that we will deliver to the people of Australia the form of government they want, unlike the Keating Labor government, which sought to impose on the Australian people its form of republic. Having said that, it is also important to recognise that this referendum is not about whether or not Australia should become a republic; it is about whether the republican model on offer is better or worse than our current system, which has delivered to Australia freedom, stability and a way of life that is the envy of people throughout the world.

This model has a number of very serious problems. I am totally opposed to the amendment before the chamber, moved by the Leader of the Opposition. What the Leader of the Opposition is seeking to do with his proposed change is to confuse and distort the question, with a view to tricking the Australian people by not explaining to them that the republic that is on offer is indeed a politician's republic and not a republic which is controlled by the people.

There are a number of grave faults with the model. Firstly, there is the appointment mechanism, and then there is the dismissal mechanism for the President. There is the question of the powers of the President, and there is the question as to whether those powers are justiciable or not. We also have to consider the question of the conventions of constitutional monarchy and whether or not they will survive in a republic. We have to look at whether, with the Keating-Turnbull republican model, which is the only republican model on offer, we will have the checks and balances in Australia which we have had since 1901, and which, through its unique genius, denies too much power to any individual.

I oppose the proposal being put by the Leader of the Opposition. I very strongly support the mechanism that the Prime Minister has put in place, and I also intend to back the amendment which will be moved by the Attorney-General that will indicate quite clearly the substance of the question which will be before the Australian people on 6 November. The republic, which the people of Australia will have the opportunity to vote for or against, will be a republic where the President is appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth parliament.

Every opinion poll which has been published in Australia shows that if Australia is to become a republic then the people want to have a say.

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr SLIPPER —And yet the chardonnay socialists opposite—the Bollinger Bolsheviks opposite—want to exclude the people of Australia from having any say in who should be Australia's President. The onus is on those who advocate change to make sure that change is better than the system which we now have. If you listen to Labor Party luminaries, they stand up here and claim that they seek, through the Keating-Turnbull model which is on offer, to preserve the benefits of Australia's Westminster system while bringing about change as we move into the next century.

I want to stress that I am someone who did stand on the sidelines for some time. I looked at the proposals of the Keating republican advisory committee. I waited to be convinced. I was interested in what was on offer, and I have to say that those people who advocate the change which the Labor Party wants are asking us to simply chart a course into the unknown. They are asking us to accept a republic where the President's powers are not defined, where the President's powers are non-justiciable, and where the President's powers at the end of the day will be what he chooses them to be, and we cannot restrain him in any way, shape or form. We are asked to give the President virtually unfettered power to appoint a Prime Minister from outside the parliament. Such a Prime Minister, of course, would in due course have to find a seat in the parliament, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility that, if he or she could not, the President could then indeed appoint someone else from outside the parliament to be Prime Minister.

The reason I highlight just a few of these problems is to indicate that the model on offer is fatally flawed. Whether you think Australia should or should not become a republic, the model which the people of Australia have to vote for or against on 6 November is substantially inferior to the system of government which we have—a system of government which has made Australia one of the greatest democracies in the world. I am proud of Australia. I think we ought to reject the Keating-Turnbull model. (Time expired)