The Honorary
President
All the detail from the Senate Submission
© 2004 David Latimer
Related Models
The Honorary President model is one of the most comprehensive in the public arena, but there is more work to do. The author is working with a number of other developers, who have reached similar conclusions about the best republican model.
Sovereignty Model by David O'Brien
This is very similar to the Honorary President Model, except for the title of Head of State, who is called the Sovereign. There is a simple reason for this: the Queen is the Sovereign and the author conveys the idea that an Australian could also be Sovereign, without changing our parliamentary democracy. Watch out for the bee-sting provision.
Three Tier Model by Peter Carden
There is more to be developed, but the model generally follows the Honorary President and Sovereignty models, except that the states have a greater influence over the administration of the of the office through a commission. The title of the Head of State is the President of Australia, with emphasis on how he or she is also the constitutional head of each state.
Model X by Professor John Power
This model follows the Honorary President model in a general way, except that the President is the principle actor in an elected constitutional council. Under this model, decisions are made by the council, instead of the President directly.
Constitutional Council Model by Peter Crayson
This model is very worthwhile to look at because the powers of the executive are spread across a number of constitutional actors and entities. It accepts that the Queen cannot be simply deleted from the constitution and that the conventions between the Governor-General and the Prime Minister cannot be codified in a single vaguely written sub-section.
McGarvie Model
Understanding the McGarvie model is the first step in understanding the difference between a practicable model, developed for Australian conditions and a model which is a hacked import. The McGarvie model made it to second-place at the 1998 Constitutional Convention. All serious model development since has made use of the McGarvie dismissal mechanism to avoid a deadlock between the Prime Minister and Governor General.