..a small ingrown place can take a plan and play with it like a cat does a chipmunk until it dies"
Gail Parker on Bennington College Committees in Nora Ephron, "The Bennington Affair", Esquire, 1976, p. 58
Latest Papers
The working papers collection comprises historical papers as well as current ideas and works in progress on some of the major issues and topics of our times.
The Australian Unity Republic proposes a transformative overhaul of the tax system under the Australian Executive Council (AEC)—a collective head of state comprising the Prime Minister and state/territory Premiers—applying subsidiarity to enhance local decision-making while streamlining national standards. Building on the AEC model from Common Sense (June 2025), Productivity, Republicanism and Improving Whole of Australian Government Efficiency (August 2025), A National Election Day (September 2025), Subsidiarity: Towards an Australian Republic that Improves the Country (September 2025), and Reshaping Honours and Australia's Soul (September 2025), this reform addresses Australia’s tax system’s vertical fiscal imbalance and $6 billion annual compliance cost (Productivity Commission, 2025). Spearheaded by AEC Leaders' Forums, it includes rationalizing federal-state taxes, expanding GST with equity safeguards, phasing out inefficient levies like payroll and stamp duties, and establishing a Tax Coordination Board. Aligned with the Albanese government’s productivity agenda, these reforms could yield $4–6 billion in annual savings, reduce red tape, and boost equity, fostering a republic that makes the country better through fairer resource allocation, local autonomy, and economic growth. Australians will endorse this republic in a 2026 referendum only if convinced it delivers safe, effective improvements—avoiding corruption via collective checks, enhancing subsidiarity for local empowerment, overhauling colonial structures for productivity gains, and enriching cultural life through elder and community investment. Taxation reform exemplifies how the collective head of state enables these outcomes more effectively than the current fragmented system.
The Australian Unity Republic proposes a transformative overhaul of the honours system, shifting it from a colonial relic to a vibrant instrument of national renewal and societal progress under the Australian Executive Council (AEC)—a collective head of state comprising elected leaders. This reform reimagines the Order of Australia by establishing "Living National Treasures" as its pinnacle, supported by substantial stipends to sustain and amplify their contributions, with a strong emphasis on elder knowledge transmission, general community service, arts recognition, and military legacy. Inspired by Japan’s cultural guardianship, New Zealand’s bicultural framework with Māori advisory councils, Canada’s nationalized honours, and the UK’s 2005 transparency reforms within the Commonwealth, the system embeds reconciliation as a core principle, prioritizing First Nations recognition and the preservation of elder wisdom—integrating awards like the Deadly Awards and arts stipends—while aligning with ANZAC traditions and future military honours. Leveraging $25.5–42.5 million in annual savings from abolished viceregal roles, this initiative enhances productivity and social cohesion, addressing the widespread failure to invest in leaders and change-makers whose knowledge and service risk being lost, fostering a republic that makes the country better by empowering them to mentor others.
The Australian Unity Republic is a sovereign, republican Australia where the Australian Executive Council (AEC), comprising the Prime Minister and state/territory Premiers, would replace the Governor-General and state governors as the collective head of state.
Replacing the current ad hoc, uncoordinated Federal system with a collective head of state has several side benefits in addition to enhancing Australian sovereignty and independence. The leaders of the nation and the States would meet together on their own, monthly. This would create an opportunity for a continuous review of Australian democracy and the productivity of the whole of Australian government.
The benefits of centrality and the principles of subsidiarity could be balanced by the AEC. Reforms such as national driver’s licenses, teachers’ certification, child care workers’ registration, Working with Children Checks (WWCC), safety checks, and business registrations and tax reform could be pursued alongside devolution of services to local government levels, the standardisation of local government boundaries, the constitutional recognition of local government, rationalisation of federal-state taxes, and more stable funding for local government.
In addition to formal Head of State functions, the AEC would operate as a tight leaders’ forum, with monthly meetings taking agreed recommendations back to federal and state/territory cabinets for consideration, review and implementation. This paper follows three earlier papers on the AEC model and articulates subsidiarity principles and several possible reforms to enhance Australian productivity, equity, and unity.
Australia stands at a crossroads, it must move to become a Republic in order to modernise and improve the country. This paper argues for a transformative republican model, replacing the Governor-General and state governors with the Australian Executive Council (AEC), a collective head of state comprising the Prime Minister and the Premiers of the six states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania) and two territories (Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory). This model not only severs ties with the monarchy but also repurposes Government Houses as museums for First Nations reconciliation and multiculturalism, aligning with the Albanese government’s 2025 productivity drive to cut red tape and boost economic resilience. As a flagship initiative, the AEC will implement "Unity Vote Day," a national election day on the first Saturday in May every four years, synchronizing federal, state, and local elections to save costs, enhance voter turnout, and foster national unity. This article outlines the Australian Unity Republic, its constitutional framework, financial benefits, cultural significance, and the case for a synchronized electoral system.
This paper has been written to record over 40 years of Aboriginal art at Shoalhaven High School which in turn is a record of the progress of Aboriginal education in NSW since the creation of the Aboriginal Education Unit in 1973. It documents some of the artworks in the school but there is much more to record, hopefully these pages will inspire more oral and written history to emerge.
There is a vacuum in Australia because there has never been a satisfactory Head of State that represents the best interests and values of Australians. This is not just a symbolic or cultural failure. It is a practical failure that has consequences for the productivity and quality of life of the nation. Australia is over governed. The original colonies with their own government processes overlap and duplicate each other. It is impossible to reign them back with the current mindset of Federalism. There is no central means of rationalising many spheres of government nor is there a way to determine what areas are best suited to State and local governance. All this must change.
The greatest civilization will find a way to look outside itself and recognize in difference something that improves the world mind, the world capacity. Sadly that is not Australia.
"Do you approve amending the Constitution to establish the Australian Executive Council, comprising the Prime Minister and state and territory Premiers, as Australia’s head of state, replacing the Governor-General and State governors?"
Before the 2025 election A. Albanese sent Doechii's "Anxiety" to every member of his caucus.
