Mungo reckons we should dispense with the governor-general as a stand-in for the British monarchy and appoint our own head of state. Why? Whether chinless lords or local folk, the job’s a joke.
The GG and state governors enjoy very generous, parasitic sinecures on the public purse. They do nothing that a well-informed taxpayer would willingly pay for if the position was subject to the hallowed ‘market forces’.
Joe Hockey’s mantra that the ‘age of entitlement is over’ is to be applied very selectively. If you’re unfortunate enough to be at the bottom of the heap you can look forward to American-style welfare and health care. But if you’re among Joe’s and Tony’s chosen few, then you too could aspire to be the ‘very model of a modern major-general’ and get the keys to Yarralumla.
Rather than our own head of state all we need is a bottle of whiteout. I’ll go through the Constitution and whiteout all references to the British monarch, the GG and state governors. There will be no ‘head of state’ in a commonsense republic. The multi-millions saved will be spent on public health, schools and transport.
Adrian Gattenhof, Mullumbimby
I’m no fan of monarchy but, equally, I’m no fan of any current model of republic or, indeed, democracy. Regimes may change but the money running them doesn’t.