If Australia became a Republic what would the elections be like?

Question

ok lets say Australia became a Republic and the model decided was an Elected President. What would the Election for president be like? would we see what we see in the US where you have like 20 candidates competing for only two nominations from each of the parties Liberal and Labor. and if we made an elected president but retained the position of Prime Minister how would the legislative elections be affected.

Answer 1

If Australia became a republic, little would have to change. There would be no need to switch to a presidential system similar to the one used in the United States, or even a semi-presidential system like that of France (where power is somewhat evenly split between parliament and president).

Under its current system, the head of government in Australia is the prime minister. He is both the leader of the legislature (as leader of his party) and the chief executive (he runs the government bureaucracy). The role of the queen and her representative in Australia (the governor-general) is that of a head of state. The head of state (or their designee) handles some foreign policy duties, greeting foreign dignitaries, and has the power to name to a prime minister and call for new elections, as well as the power to refuse to co-sign bills from the parliament. These are formalized powers, and are rarely used except in deadlocks and emergencies. Additionally, the head of state is a symbol of the nation, and serves as a leader who is seen to be "above politics," providing some additional stability to the political process.

In a constitutional monarchy, these powers are vested in a hereditary monarchy. In a republic, they would be in the hands of an elected leader, usually a president. However, that president would still have the same limited role in a parliamentary system of government. Germany and Finland, for example, both have elected presidents as heads of state, but the real power lies with the prime minister (or chancellor, as it is styled in Germany), the cabinet, and the legislature.

A separate election (held on a set interval, rather than whenever the parliamentary government called new elections) would have to be held for the president in Australia, but that would be the only change. One option would be a plurality system, where each party could field a candidate, and the person with the most votes would win, regardless of whether or not they had a majority, or a two-round system, where all candidates compete in the first round, and the top two vote-getters face off in a second round (France uses this system to elect its president).

The only real difference in this system is that the head of state would be a local figure, not a colonial ruler, and thus Australians might feel more connected to the head of state, and not have the same resentment of "foreign" intervention as some did when Govenor-General John Kerr dissolved the Whitlam government in 1975.

Answer 2

We would have to put Malcolm Turnbull in one corner and Paul Keating in the other and watch them slug it out for the Presidency the winner would be the last one standing.

Answer 3

I think that things would be much the same except that Aussies would no longer recognize the British monarch as head of state.