INTRODUCTION
Welcome
to my fellow citizens. You may well ask why am I sticking my neck out and spending my dollars to offer a potential solution
to the public? In the words of Martin Luthar King I have a dream. I wish to share that dream with you my fellow citizens.
To put
it simply, I am a 5th generation Australian, my great, great, grandfather James Barnes arrived on a sailing ship in 1857.
I am disgusted that today in 2003, 215 years down the road we are a country with out rights. We have ever increasing legislation,
increasing regulations, increasing taxes with little or no regard to our quality of life. When one looks at attempted murders,
rape, divorce, burglary, fraud, one sees an increasing negative spiral in our society.
I sincerely
believe that unless we look for change outside the conventional box of the Westminster system, then our society is doomed for further decline.
Why has the number of wealthy and middle class Australians emigrating jumped dramatically in recent years? Doubling in just
the last 5 years. A fact compounded even further when one realizes that the Australian born component has jumped to 49% of
all emigration. Why are Australians by birthright leaving our nation? Why are
nearly three (3) 747 jumbos of Australians choosing to leave Australia permanently each week?
Simply
because we are no longer the carefree and easy living society we once were.
IS THERE HOPE?
Let me
relate an experience which inspires me.
In 1988
I stood on Table Mountain in South Africa, and photographed Robin Island where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for most of his 27 odd years in detention. At
the nano second I took that photo, no one in the world would have predicted that in 5 years that:
1) Oppressive apartheid government would crumble.
2) The A.N.C. would win a majority government.
3) The South African constitution be rewritten.
4) Nelson Mandela becomes president.
There
is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come.
Nelson
Mandela had a passionate dream of a democratic South Africa. In his formative stages of the A.N.C. many black leaders argued vehemently against having white,
coloureds, Asians and Indians involved with the A.N.C.
Nelson
Mandela had the wisdom and foresight to recognize that to win they had to appeal to the broader masses and be inclusive and
not exclusive.
His summery
was Lets focus on what unites us rather than divides us! I believe Nelson Mandela was the greatest statesman of the 20th
century. My message to you is, lets focus on what unites us, and not what divide us. Our future quality of life is at stake
here. Lets remember that a democracy comes from Greek-
(Demos
= people and cratein = rule)
A form
of government, in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them. A state of society characterized
by nominal equality of rights and privileges, political or social equality.
We can choose to maintain the status quo by passively accepting what our politicians
tell us, or we can step out of our comfort zones and recreate our futures. I encourage you to share the dream of the second.
WHERE
WE ARE AT?
To understand
where we are at one needs to look at our type of government.
Thomas
Paine who wrote the Rights of man in the 18th century that is the 17 hundreds. He was the key inspirator of the
French and American revolutions. Thomas Paine writes that there are only three types of government.
1) Superstition
(Tribal)
2) Power
(Conqueror)
3) Common
interest of society, and common rights of man.
(democracy)
Contrary
to popular opinion we are not governed by a democracy but by a conquering government.
Thomas
Paine writes The constitution of a country is not the act of its government, but of the people constituting a government.
We operate under the British Crown Act 9th of July 1900.
Today
we dont have constitutional rights, nor a bill of rights via legislation. Our governments have been increasingly distant and
out of touch with the average Australian.
And I
quote - Letter democracies ignored 13/3/03.
NT News
It is
becoming painfully obvious that we no longer live in a democracy. Whether or not the common person believes that a war should
be fought in Iraq; A gas plant built at Wickham Point: That marijuana be legalized, that pool fencing is necessary, or the
mall be open to traffic, is of no importance to government.
The people
are not being heard. Our freedoms eroded by legislation to the point of slavery.
In this
modern world where there exists a myriad ways to communicate, the people are silenced.
The government
has become adept at dividing and dismissing opinion.
It bullies
mandate to govern and forgets that it exists to serve the needs and interests of the people.
So divided
we fall.
We have
a system which has taken away our right of abstention, elects governments who are out of reach, out of touch and out of control,
and whose people have no right to hold the reins (sic) or choose its direction.
This
system needs to change.
It is
not right. It is not fair. It is un Australian.
Terry
Finocchiaro
Parap
Because
we dont have constitutional rights as a people, government can continue to violate peoples natural rights by legislation and
regulation and do so. Rights which most Australians assume we have, such as
1) right to vote
2) right to freedom of speech
3)
right to assemble
4) right of ownership
Simply
do not exist. We have lived in a gloomy sphere of deception by the crown. It has suited the crowns position to foster this
deception. How many Australian students are taught our constitution?
Essentially
none.
Law students
look at it and are primed with deceptive points on common law and implied rights.
(Ask questions) Who
has been in the NT
for
up to 10 years (please raise your hand)
for
up to 20 years
for up to 30 years
for up to 40 years
for up to 50 years
for up to 60 years
Who knows
who Harold Nelson was?
Harold
Nelson and 19 conscientious businessmen went to Fannie
Bay Goal in 1921 for refusing to pay taxes without representation.
On the
16th of December, 1922
Harold Nelson became the Northern Territorys first representative in Canberra with
no right to vote, only debate
Manning
Clark Australias noted historian summed it up with On literal reading there is not one section of the
constitution that is democratic. It is an autocratic, monarchic document
John
Singleton wrote Thus, it is an inescapable fact that in Australia today nobody has any rights at all. What
freedom we do have, not by right, but by government permission. The only time
our rights are recognized is when a government does not have the constitutional power to commit any act that violates them.
Today
the same crown government who is arbitrarily taking legally registered pistols off licensed Australians, regularly shoot Australian
citizens with bullets that do not comply with the principals of the Geneva convention, 1949 the Hague rules 1899 and St. Petersburg
declaration 1868.
The same crown government remains deathly silent on the 20th
century governments slaughtering of over 170 million through genocide, politicide and religicide of unarmed civilians.
It pays to consider
Kofi Annans statement. War with Iraq with out UN would lack legitimacy. We have tyranny of government which refuses to acknowledge basic
humanitarian rights and flagrantly exercises its own powers contrary to international principals of law.
I assert that rather than the UN, a body of 169 nations becoming
irrelevant, it is in fact our crown government who is becoming irrelevant.
To suggest that truth went overboard at the last federal election
is rubbish, the truth is it hasnt been onboard since 26th of January 1788.
Whilst
many Australians see John Howard in less than a favorable light, lets not confuse symptoms with cause. The truth is John Howard is a product of the system of Government over the people. A continuance of conquering
Government where your rights and my rights count for nothing. The truth is that
our system of Westminster Government, under the British Crown Act of 9th July 1900 is the root cause. Remember this act was setup for the
white Australia policy, a total denial of basic humanitarian rights.
We must
address the cause, otherwise a republic with a minor facelift of the current totalitarian regime will only continue the current
frustrations and denial of civil and humanitarian rights we experience today. If
we do not accept individually and collectively responsibility for our future nothing will change.
The reason
we have no say over our unilateral invasion of Iraq, or the LNG plant in our harbour, or our lack of humanitarian rights, or our deceptive disarmament, or our lack of democracy, is simply
we are a nation in 2003 without rights. The NT Republican movement will rise to succeed or fail on people power. I encourage you to unite to create the dream of a better, fairer and just future.
WHERE
WE FIT IN GLOBALY.
A relevant
point to start would be that Australia is the only common law country that does not have a statement of its rights and freedoms,
and there is clearly not enough protection for basic rights in the current system, whereas other have -
Canadian
bill of rights 1982.
New Zealands bill or rights 1992
United Kingdoms bill of rights 1998
Or lets
compare to Azerbaijan, does anyone know where Azerbaijan is? (On western shores of Caspian Sea)
Today
Azerbaijan has a peoples constitution which includes,
1) Source of power is the people.
2) Citizen referendums on rights and interests.
3) Rejects war as infringement on independence of other states.
4) Property state, private, municipal is inviolable.
5) Right to live.
6) Right to strike.
7) Right to healthy environment.
8) Right to a home.
9) Right of citizenship.
10)Right
to vote.
None
of which we have.
Lets
take Canada, a commonwealth country and look at their rights.
1) right to life
2) right to movement
3) right to liberty
4) right to a fair trial
5) right to no torture
None
of which we have
Lets
take a look at New
Zealand
bill of rights 1990.
1) right to vote
2) right to freedom of thought (conscience)
3) right to freedom of expression
4) right to no torture
5) right to life
6) right to assembly
7) right of movement
8) right against unreasonable search and seizure
9) right to not be arbitrarily arrested or detained
(10)right
to no double jeopardy
All of
which we dont have!
We have
the alternative vote and are the only country in the world to use it. Allegations of fraud are wide spread and the system
is open to abuse by the 2 party abused systems. On preferential voting, Winston Churchill summed it up eloquently in his alternative
vote bill in 1931, in House of Commons. The decision is to be determined by the most worthless votes given for the most worthless
candidates. How ironic is it that an Australian government needs to get senate
approval for a budget. Remember Whitlam, yet a government can arbitrarily go to war against the senate vote!
We are
the 4th highest taxed nation in the developed world, and with the unknown costs of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and the costs of John Howards Son of the Star Wars program, we risk being elevated to the top of
the list.
The GSP
(Gross State Product) of NT = 9 billion 61 million which is 1.3 times the national average. This figure tells us that if the other 7 states produced the same amount of wealth as the Territory per
capita than our GDP would be 906 billion 696 million instead of 697 billion 459 million with a differential of 209 billion
237 million. That is a serious differential in anyones terms.
It is
time for Government to realize that tax from the people is a privilege that needs to be utilized accountably. And further that government is accountable to the people, not the people accountable to the Government. The sad reality is today we have Government in epidemic proportions, and with excessive
Government comes excessive legislation, regulation and tax. The truth is we need
less Government, less legislation, less regulation and less tax.
Federal Government
Legislation
State
Regulation
Local
TAX
US
We clearly
are not up to speed with other countries and wonder why our emigration has jumped over 200 % in the last 5 years.
WHAT
ARE OUR OPTIONS?
You can
be the designer of your life, or a victim of your circumstances. Its up to you. I am choosing not to be a victim of my circumstances.
Im choosing to invest time, money and effort today to create a better fairer democratic society tomorrow. We can sit back
and wait for the crown government under the 2 party abused system to reform their ways and bring us justice and liberty on
a constitutional platter which wont happen. Or, we can say we are in control of our lives personally, we will educate ourselves,
organize ourselves and through people power and reason recreate our future.
Let me
be frank, no political party in Australia is 100% percent committed to becoming a republic. They all share in the power swill at the trough. They are about maintaining
power for the elite few, rather than devolving power to the community and having a democracy. If the party system genuinely
had Australians interest at heart, in 102 years since federation, we would have had constitutional rights. They simply dont.
We could
choose to emigrate and join the eight hundred odd Australians each week. But what of the sacrifice, of 103 thousand Australians,
who have already died for freedom?
Before
I choose to emigrate, as a fifth generation Australian, Im going to give the crown the fight of my life.
The option
Im working on is,
a) To inform my fellow citizens of lack of rights and how displaced we are in the world today, hence tonight.
b) To offer my fellow citizens hope. That there is a dream of a free and democratic society.
c) To proactively stimulate research into finding solutions to the problems and developing a peoples draft constitution.
d) To garner broad based community support for a republic based on the constitutional individual rights and liberties.
e) Win the numbers of people power to effectively make the West Minster parliament obsolete and petition Canberra for secession on 14 days notice, then petition the Queen (monarchy) on 14 days notice,
then petition the UN to recognize the NT as a new state in its own right!
Fellow
citizens, nothing changes without change, if we are sick of too much legislation, regulation, oppressive taxes, and the melt
down of society we need to change.
WHAT CAN PEOPLE DO?
You may
well ask, what can I do as an individual? What you have observed tonight is the reflection of 30 odd individuals who through
collective thought, effort and team work have given you an option.
You can
catch the dream, become a free member and become participator in designing your life. You dont need parliamentary permission,
you dont need the 2 party abused system. What you do need is a belief in creating a society based on truth, justice and liberty.
I encourage
you to share in the experience, success in a journey not a destination! We together can reshape our future, we can determine
that our children and grandchildren will inherit a democracy based on constitutional rights and liberties with government
that is responsive to the community needs. We can change the education system to make our own precious young Australians politically
aware of the enemies of democracy. To give them the skills to excel in a global village economy, without having the financial
shackles of an oppressive autocratic monarchic government taxing them out of existence.
Where
to start?
1) Become a member.
2) Obtain
10 copies of document A and document B and go and give to another 10 Territorians, encouraging them to do like wise.
300 by 10 = 3000 Territorians.
3000 by 10 = 30,000 Territorians.
30,000 by 10 = 300,000 Territorians.
NT only
has 200,000
3) Become an active member on a team of the committee. We need research done for example,
85 constitutions globally, we need to finish collecting, disseminating and drafting statistics.
4) We
need active members to help penetrate all other major centres in the NT.
5) We
need members to be active in various ways, writing letters to the editor, getting on talk back radio, writing to their M.L.A.
challenging conventional thinking.
A few
quotes from people I admire.
1) When the dreams big enough, the facts dont count Dextar Yager
2) The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams
Eleanor Roosevelt
3) The man who wants to do something badly enough always finds a way - The other kind finds and excuse Elgin Gates
What
value do I place on Democratic freedom, everything! Tonight is a small example
of what I am prepared to pay to achieve a citizens constitution with humanitarian rights as its foundation stone and democratic
government. I am prepared to risk all I own, going to jail, and if necessary
my life.
The greatest
legacy I can leave my 3 children is a democracy founded totally on constitutional humanitarian rights. The price Im prepared to pay is everything, how about you? I
encourage you to join the NT Republican movement, joining is absolutely free. Everyone
who joins will also receive a free copy of Document B with the substantive details.
I encourage
you to remember; focus on what unites us humanitarian rights and not the issues that divide.
May God
bless you all,
Thank
you
