Then there are Kerr's cudgels, the reserve powers. The reserve powers exist politically because the Labor Party in 1975 would not mobilise workers against the Constitutional coup. From a legal point of view these powers may not exist because Whitlam did not test the issue in Court. But if we vote yes on November 6 we will entrench these vague reserve powers in our Constitution. New section 59 of the Constitution will say that the President may exercise a power that was a reserve power of the Governor-General in accordance with the constitutional conventions relating to the exercise of that power.
Nothing is spelt out.
That the Labor Party supports this abomination is an indication of its degeneration. It means a future John Kerr can sack a future Gough Whitlam. It's another reason to vote no. The essence of the monarchy in feudal times was the exercise of absolute power without democratic restraint. The essence of the ARM's presidency is the possibility of the exercise of absolute power overriding the democratic choice of the Australian people.