« August 2004 | | October 2004 »
The time for which unelected legislators-for-life may delay laws passed by elected legislators is likely to be limited after the general election, according to a report in the Financial Times. The newspaper reported that this was the most likely restriction on the so-called Lords’ powers to be included in the Labour Party manifesto. The legislators-for-life defeated government proposals in 44 per cent of votes in the last House of Lords session.
The Australian Senate Legal & Constitutional Affairs Committee has recommended in its report The Road To A Republic that any future move to make Australia a republic should have three stages.
The first step would be a plebiscite on the principle of becoming a republic. If a majority favoured a republic there would be a second plebiscite on which of five forms this should take. A group of constitutional experts would then refine this model before a referendum was held to change the constitution.
If the committee’s recommendation that the plebiscites be held at the same time as federal elections is accepted, it will be at least ten years before Australia is free of monarchy
All members of the committee agreed that programmes of constitutional education would be needed.
The Australian Republican Movement welcomed the report.
Labour MP Derek Wyatt has said that giving the BBC a new ten-year charter would be "folly". In an article in the Financial Times the House of Common culture committee member says that the state media giant should be treated as "any other utility" with its funding reviewed by the Treasury every three years.
Mr. Wyatt says that the BBC has a large overdraft and a shortfall in its pension fund despite above inflation increases in its funding. He suggests that the corporation has lost 40% of its viewers over the last ten years and describes it as "a bloated, unmanageable, out of control imperial player." The MP adds that the BBC is the only public broadcaster in the world to pay as many six-figure salaries to managers.
Mr. Wyatt concludes by doubting that the state broadcaster is capable of adjusting to the radical changes in the ways in which news and entertainment will be delivered that are expected in the near future.