Honorary President

Senate Submission

 Overview 
 Title
 Introduction
 Framework
 Origins
 Advantages


 The Amendments 
 20 References
 Section 126
 Section 59
 Section 60
 Section 61
 Section 2
 Section 4
 The States
 All Amendments


 The Election 
 Why Elect
 Apolitical
 Electoral Law
 Timing


 Independence 
 Introduction
 The Two Roles
 Costs v Benefits
 Free Speech


 Other Issues 
 Referendum
 One Royal Link
 Honorary Vice Pres
 Spectrum of Powers
 Questions
 More Questions
 Conclusion

Electing the Honorary President

The Electoral Law

Under section 60, the Parliament would be required to pass a law to provide the detailed provisions concerning the election of the Honorary President. The provisions within the law would include:

• the qualifications of petitioners under sub-sub-section 60(ii)(c)
• a method of eliminating petitioned candidates based upon the number of signatures.
• the qualifications of nominees (at the time of nomination), including the length of service required as a Governor General, governor or lieutenant governor
• the method of election
• the qualification of electors
• limits on advertising before the election
• holding a public information campaign
• the conduct of the election in general
• the length of term (between five and eight years)
• salary and conditions of the office
• staff to assist the Honorary President
• appointment of one or more Honorary Vice Presidents
• resignation of Honorary President and Honorary President by hand to the Governor General
• circumstances where the most senior Honorary Vice President assumes the Office of Honorary President

Unless the number of states changes, the there will be no more than seven parliamentary nominees. The number of publicly petitioned nominees is limited to three. The law would need to proscribe a method of reducing the number of petitioned nominees. This could be simply done by eliminating those candidates with the least signatures. The law could introduce a numerical penalty if the petition did not involve a spread of states.

The method of election must consider that there will be ten or close to ten candidates, most of who are respected members of the community and many of who would have served as a Governor. The author’s preferred method would allow electors to vote for more than one candidate, with each vote contributing equally to the candidates tally.

Above: Sample ballot allowing multiple endorsements

Under this system an elector could acknowledge the community contribution and suitability of several candidates without preferencing. Ballots could also be tallied electronically.

Finally, given that the election of the Honorary President is of no political consequence, it would be appropriate to conduct the election via postal ballot. In their own homes, electors could read the profiles of candidates and complete their ballot as they proceed. There would be no tally room build-up but a sober announcement of the results by the Australian Electoral Commissioner.

Next: Timing of the Election