The College by the Harbour - St Aloysius

Constitutional Convention
NSW Schools Constitutional
Convention
Russell McGoldrick (Year 12) was selected by the
History Department at the College to have his
name included in the draw for students to be
considered to take part in the NSW Constitutional
Convention. Russell was fortunate enough to have been
selected to represent the College and the State. Following
Russell’s participation in this event he filed the following
report.
Of the 251 Year Twelve students that applied from
across New South Wales, the 60 accepted applicants filed
into Parliament House at 8:30am on Monday, 4 March.
We were a varying lot, with representatives from schools as
far afield as Tumut and Casino flown in for the day.
Having received our kits containing copies of the
constitution, and the issues papers for the day, we went
into the Legislative Council chamber to have the
Convention officially opened by Hon Dr Meredith
Bergman MLC, President of the Legislative Council, and
to hear the two keynote speakers of the day talking about
the two issues that were up for debate – Should Australia
have a Bill of Rights recognised in the Constitution? and
Should Australia have a change to a republic?
We were welcomed by Hon Dr Bergman MLC and
the two Chairpersons who had attended the Convention
last year. Justice Marcus Einfeld made a speech about
human rights in Australia. It was a real eye-opener,
finding out about the human rights abuses that were going
on in the world, and although myself and the student from
Tumut did not agree with all he said, everyone, who
attended the Convention, ourselves included, commented
on how is was a speech that touched the heart, and made
the hour he spoke for seem much quicker than it really
was.
The speech came as something of a surprise for me, I
was expecting it to be about the ramifications of a Bill of
Rights in the constitution (as stated by the topic), but it
was more about the protection that a Bill of Rights would
bring, and how it would be able to turn Australia into a
world leader in Human Rights.
Prof Elaine Thompson, an associate professor of
Politics made a speech about her thoughts on an
Australian Republic. She spoke about her own republican
feelings, and spoke about the feelings of the Australian
society. She stated that there were approximately 15% of
the population who were devout monarchists, and that the
rest of the population were republicans or did not have
much interest in the issue.
After recess, we were split up into our four groups, and
went to our respective rooms to debate the issues. On the
Bill of Rights issue, my group (Green), decided to amend
and simplify the constitution to include basic, nondiscriminatory
rights, and have a further legislative Bill of
Rights to deal with more complex issues that would only
be able to be changed with the times by a 2/3 majority of
both houses of parliament in a secret ballot. Although this
may seem relatively simple, when you have fifteen 17-18
year olds debating it, coming from all walks of life and all
political persuasions, it took us 45 minutes all up to thrash
out that agreement.
This left us with approximately 15 minutes left to
debate the republic. In the end, we decided that we should
not become a republic in the present circumstances, but
that it was inevitable that we would be one eventually. We
decided that the President should have the same powers as
the combined powers of the Queen and the Governor-
General at the moment, and the method for election
would be direct election of a council to make
recommendations to Parliament, and a 2/3 majority in
both houses of Parliament to choose a president from the
list of nominations.
After lunch, we voted on the delegates that would go
to represent New South Wales at the National Convention
in Canberra. These delegates would have the opportunity
to meet the Prime Minister, the Governor-General, and
various politicians and community and social leaders. I was
fortunate enough to be chosen as a delegate, and I am
looking forward to representing my State at the
Convention on 20 – 22 March 2002.
After voting on the delegates, we entered the
Legislative Assembly chamber, where we were fortunate
enough to speak to the Foreign Minister of Canada, and
for the Speaker, Hon John Murray MP to speak to us
about the role of the Speaker in the House. We then had
soapbox, which is where delegates could speak for one
minute on a topic of their choice. This was followed by a
general vote on the propositions, with the end result being
54-6 in favour of a Bill of Rights, and 57-3 in favour of
a republic.
I would like to thank both St Aloysius College, and the
Parliamentary Education office for giving me the
opportunity to represent my school and my State at this
Convention.
Russell McGoldrick
Year 12
P & F Card Day
Thursday 13th June 2002
$25 – including morning tea
and a champagne lunch
Enquiries: Jenny Monckton 9949 1785
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