CCF – Governor-General

A new Governor was sworn in for New South Wales yesterday. Margaret Beazley takes over the role after former Governor David Hurley agreed to become our next Commonwealth Governor-General.

Governor Beazley stated in her swearing-in address:

The citizenship saga/issue/crisis continues. Almost every day one or two MP’s or Senators are outed in the media for having a parent born in some other country.

We had a huge social media response last week to our comparative article about the separation of powers in Australia and the US. Questions and comments about the role of Commander-in-Chief in Australia and the US kept popping up.

The article we wrote last week about moving towards four-year fixed terms in the House of Representatives gained a huge social media response. We had hundreds of comments on Facebook.

CEFA staff were alarmed on Tuesday morning 5 July when we picked up the Sydney Morning Herald and read the front page words “Australia faces a protracted political and Constitutional crisis”. But is this a Constitutional crisis? Or is the system working as it should?

Feedback we received last week lamented that we had neglected to mention the role of the Queen and the Governor-General in the Parliament.

The result of children not being taught the value of democracy in school is that only 50% of 18 year olds are enrolled to vote at this election. 

The writs for the upcoming 2 July election were issued in accordance with our Constitution on Monday. You might think this is not a very interesting topic. Almost like watching paint dry.

It must be the most replayed speech by any Australian politician. It will be on the news again this week for the 40th anniversary of the Whitlam government’s dismissal. And it can be found online in earlier anniversaries and retrospectives.

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