Letter to the Editor
7th October 1999
As the November 6th Referendum draws near, there is still much deception and non-disclosure of fact beyond the simplistic two matters presented to the public.
How many Australians would know about, let alone have read the three Exposure Drafts.
Firstly, the Preamble Draft has been cleverly worded to legitimize our Constitution which has been clearly invalid since Australia became a Sovereign Nation on 10th January 1920 upon acceptance into the League of Nations!
Secondly, the Presidential Draft will do absolutely nothing to transfer power from the "representatives" to the people of Australia.
And then we have the Alteration Draft which contains no less than 60 pages of change to the present Constitution, I do not see that the people of Australia have been made aware of the complete re-write of the intent of the Constitution that a "Yes" vote would allow.
Of particular note should be the proposed alteration to Section 126, this is also worded to invigorate our invalid Constitution that is so obsolete that in 1988 Britain gifted Australia with the original as it had "long been redundant".
On page 43 of the Alteration Draft, "alteration 12.87" will repeal the original "S.126" and replace it with "alteration 12.88" which now provides "that the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia, and all laws made under it by the Commonwealth Parliament, are binding on the courts, judges and peoples of every State".
It is pointed out that the "new S.126" is in the same terms as in the covering clauses.
This is clearly not so!
Clause 5 of the covering notes commences "This Act, and all laws made under it by the Commonwealth" etc.
Validity has been transferred from "This Act" to "the Constitution".
So again the Referendum is clear on its treacherous intent, that is, to have a revamped Constitution achieve legal validity to get around the fact that all previous laws of the Parliament since 1920 have not bound the courts etc
Noel Mc Donald
Geelong