The Australia Together Podcast

In Episode 7 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 2 – Part 3 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. She outlines how Australia’s reliance on an alliance with America has been dragging Australia into dependency on an ally that is itself unstable and suggests that it is therefore important for Australia to design its democracy so that it is less vulnerable to the sort of weaknesses affecting America’s and more reliable for purposes of maintaining our sovereignty as an independent nation, one less easily dragged into another’s wars. This will require Australia to build a new model of democracy – one which is not reduced to mere electioneering for selection of representatives but which, in addition to and before election processes, allows the people to speak for themselves.

Bronwyn suggests this new model of democracy should insert an extra step into our current processes for electing representatives. Before we elect them, we the people must first work together to set down in writing a description of the preferred character and values of our nation and scope the policy agenda that will be necessary for realisation of that preferred national character. In short, we the people of Australia should learn to provide instructions to those we elect about the nation we are trying to build and that they are being elected to deliver by ethical application of the powers we vest in them in elections.

Bronwyn concludes that Australians can develop that capacity by establishing an open but well organised public planning forum on the internet and by establishing a people’s constitution which gives them the right to use orderly democratic processes to express their sovereign will.   

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 6 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 2 – Parts 1 & 2 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. The chapter is about setting a path to power for the people and Bronwyn begins to explain how the power of self-determination can be secured for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians if they can be given a voice in a people’s constitution. She elaborates on how this is likely to spark a significant transformation in the form of state we have now by vesting the sovereign will in the people of Australia (rather than in the monarch) and by eliminating the racist elements of the current Constitution. She also outlines how a new national, democratic, open forum will need to be established to facilitate this transformation and to ensure orderly decision making can occur going forward. Bronwyn also elaborates on the need to learn from the experience of other democracies if we are to design a good model for a new constitution - one that suits Australians. For this purpose she examines the strengths and weaknesses of the American Constitution and compares that to a model for a new democracy that has been inspired by the First Nations Voice.  

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

In Episode 5 Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 1 – Part 3 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section, headed "Where power should reside - and soon", she suggests that Australia’s Constitution is useless in its current form if we genuinely wish to retain Australia as a democratic state, not just because it has no capacity to rein in corporate power but because it has no space for the people themselves and offers them no capacity to create the necessary participation in democracy that all Australians will need if they are to build a democracy worth the name and navigate the future safely. However, this problem can be overcome if we transition to a people’s constitution. Bronwyn begins to outline this new sort of constitution, suggesting that it should contain a new specification of the process by which power may be shared with and exercised by the people in an orderly manner.

She outlines how that process must function as both a negative force and a positive force in a newly inclusive democracy. On the negative side it must enable efficient vigilance by the people against surges of unreasonable power (wherever and whenever they may arise). And on the positive side it must enable the people to set the agenda for their future – to establish the specifics of their will.

Bronwyn concludes Chapter 1 by suggesting that a key factor affecting the need for a new inclusive power system has arisen from the fact that Australia’s First Nations have called for a coexistence of sovereignties. The conclusion is that if an Indigenous Voice is to have the best chance of actually working to the benefit of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, it will be necessary not just to enshrine the Indigenous Voice in the Constitution but to revise the Constitution itself so that it can support a sufficiently powerful voice for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This is the minimum necessary for a coexistence of viable sovereignties.  

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 4: Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 1 – Part 2 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. In this section, headed "Where power now resides, unrestrained", she examines who holds power now in Australia’s polity and concludes that corporate power and other institutions of international financial power – including transnational news media businesses – have reached a level where they have the capacity to override the legitimate will of independent, democratic nations. She concludes that: In Australia that sort of power is out of control in large part because of the total inadequacy of a Constitution that passively grants – because it does not disallow – grossly disproportionate power to an unelected few at the same time as it provides no possibility that such power can be reined in by the people (or, for that matter, by the judicature and the states). Australia’s Constitution leaves Australians defenceless against the abuse of power and the exercise of it in a manner that is contrary to the public interest.  

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 3: Bronwyn Kelly reads Chapter 1 – Part 1 of her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. She examines the limits imposed by the current Constitution on Australia’s democracy and explains the rationale behind the suggestions that will be made in later chapters for changes to Australia’s Constitution. She argues that these changes are necessary to ensure the nation can be established as a genuinely inclusive and stable democracy – one which enables all citizens to exercise political equality and limits potential abuses of power.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 2: Bronwyn Kelly reads Part 2 of the Introduction to her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy, in which she sets out the structure of the book. She explains how the book plots a path to empowerment of Australian citizens in their democracy by alteration of the Australian Constitution. She outlines the contents of the book’s ten chapters:

Chapter 1: The limits of Australia’s representative democracy

Chapter 2: Setting a path to power for the people

Chapter 3: Finding a place to start

Chapter 4: Essentials for a new start as a nation

Chapter 5: Essential No. 1 – Building a statement of Australian national values

Chapter 6: Essential No. 2 – Enshrinement of human rights and obligations in an Australian people’s constitution

Chapter 7: Essential No. 3 – A process for expression on the Australian people’s national voice

Chapter 8: Essential No. 4 – Priority constitutional amendments for an inclusive democracy

Chapter 9: Processes for engagement on and adoption of The Australian People’s Constitution

Chapter 10: The possibilities of a new democracy under a people’s constitution

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com

Episode 1: Bronwyn Kelly reads the Introduction to her book, The People's Constitution: the path to empowerment of Australians in a 21st century democracy. She explains how the book will (1) examine Australia's current Constitution from the point of view of the powerless and (2) show how it can be remade to ensure Australians can take up positions of rightful power within their own democracy, thereby gaining more control over not just their destiny but their prospects for survival.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bronwynkelly.substack.com