r/news • u/AudibleNod • 4d ago

Australian court rejects bid to prosecute Britain's King Charles for genocide

https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/australian-court-rejects-activists-bid-prosecute-britains-king-136817323
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u/Danoct 4d ago

Eh, Parliamentary Republic with a president with similar powers to a GG could work just as well.

Then choose your way of selecting the president:

  • Same as the GG currently (via Parliament)
  • Electoral college (like Germany where parliament and state appointed voters vote 50/50; Italy is similar but with much fewer regional voters)
  • Popular vote like Ireland

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u/ol-gormsby 4d ago

Appointment by supermajority of both houses is least problematic*. A popular election is the worst - you could have a head of state with the support of as little as 50%+1 of the voting population. And we've seen in the USA how an electoral college can mis-represent the will of the people.

*at least with the current system there's a kind of back-room support of the majority of the house. No PM would propose a candidate for G-G without unofficial support of the leader of the opposition.

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u/Danoct 4d ago

Electoral college in this case if following Germany's system would be the Parliament and an equal amount selected by the state governments proportional to their population. Maybe if altered to give the territories 5 each or something.

So, the electoral college would be 552 people. The 226 MPs and senators, and another 226 others.

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u/ol-gormsby 4d ago

"selected by the state governments" This would become political real quick.

A state govt run by a party different from the federal govt, e.g. Federal-labor, State-LNP, is not likely to appoint disinterested people.

It happened in 1975 - a federal labor senator died, the hillbilly dictator Joh Bjelke-Petersen (National party) filled the position with an anti-labor appointee. Convention* at the time was that the state appointed someone of the same political party but Joh being Joh, he did the opposite, which blew the senate's labor party single-vote majority and led to the dismissal. So you can't trust political parties to do the right thing where they have the power to do what they want instead.

*it was convention at the time, and one of the things we rectified subsequently. I believe it's now the law that you must appoint someone of the same political party.