Stranger than Strange: What is our Malcolm up to now?

Back on 11 November 2015, Prime Minister Turnbull was asked the following doorstop question from the media:

• Prime Minister, on the Dismissal - we all say things we regret when we're 21, but do you still think the Governor-General is, I quote, “an unelected ribbon cutter" and did this event form your views on an Australian republic?

The Prime Minister responded:

• Look I think if the Queen's reign comes to an end and the Constitution is in the form it is today, Prince Charles will become our Head of State.   He's not our Head of State. I see the Opposition Leader referred to him as a visiting Head of State.   He's not the Head of State.   The Queen is the Head of State, Prince Charles is her heir and our Constitution, as you know, says that the Queen in effect our Head of State, is whoever happens to be the King or Queen of the United Kingdom.   So if Charles becomes the King of the United Kingdom, as I’ve got no doubt he will be, unless our Constitution has been changed, he will become the King of Australia.   

From this, we can ascertain that, in Malcolm Turnbull's eyes, the Queen of Australia is our Head of State.

That said, and more recently as 2 June 1916 with the repatriation of 32 war dead from both Malaysia and Vietnam - including two spouses and 6 children - both Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull chose not to attend the "bringing them home ceremony" held at RAAF Base Richmond, NSW.

However, Bill Shorten did apologise for not attending the repatriation of Vietnam war dead ceremony but Malcolm Turnbull, who also did not attend, simply stated "The Australian government, the Australian people, were represented by our head of state, by the Governor-General, Peter Cosgrove, who is the highest office holder in our nation and who served in Vietnam and won a Military Cross there."

Listen to Radio 2GB 2:00PM news of Friday, 3 June 2016 for verification:

On the Alan Jones show on Wednesday, 8 June 2016, Malcolm Turnbull confirmed that the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, is definitely Australia's head of state.

For further verification listen to Radio 2GB Alan Jones show on Wednesday, 8 June 2016

But Malcolm Turnbull does have form.

The Seven Network's Face to Face programme (Sunday, 23 November 1997) chaired by David Koch and helped along admirably by John Stanley (2UE) and Louise Dodson (Financial Review) successfully managed to give Malcolm Turnbull (Australian Republican Movement) a free half hour of self-indulgence to inform us, amongst other things, that a republic is NOT inevitable.

For verification watch the following movie.

In the ABC-TV 7.30 Report interview with Malcolm Turnbull conducted by Kerry O'Brien. Monday, 29 November 1999, Malcolm Turnbull now claims that a republic IS inevitable! The programme focused on his latest Book.

For verification watch the following movie.

It is hard to understand where Malcolm is at on the republic issue.

So the latest thing is that the Governor-General, Sir Peter Cosgrove, is our Head of State. Sir Peter is also an Australian.


As the Queen's representative, Sir Peter is also the Commander-in-Chief!

If that is the case then we have an Australian as Head of State and that there is now no need for Malcolm to pursue the republic dream anymore.

The Australian Republic Movement's Peter Fitzsimons must be spitting chips!

One can only wonder why the 4th estate hasn't cottoned on to this.

Media's Interpretation of "Head of State"

Last year, Channel Nine's 60 Minute show screened "The Good Wife" - a story about the anti-feminist crusader Samantha Brick.

In that story, Liam Bartlett used the phrase "Head of State" when asking a question of feminist Germaine Greer in respect of an earlier comment about the Prime Minister's bottom that Miss Greer had made on the ABC's Q&A programme. Liam's question was in the context of a discussion about the Prime Minister and, therefore, inferred that the Prime Minister is Australia's Head of State as did Miss Greer as well in respect of David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

An extract from the relevant part of the THE GOOD WIFE transcript follows:

GERMAINE: Can we just work this one out? Do they open doors or shut them? First of all she says oh, I’m being discriminated against ‘cause I’m so lovely. Now she says I’ve used my looks to get where I am. Just shut up, Samantha, for God’s sake. 

LIAM BARTLETT: Something Germaine herself significantly failed to do when the temptation to be bitchy was dangled before her - in the shape of the Prime Minister’s posterior. 

GERMAINE: You’ve got a big arse, Julia. Just get over it.

LIAM BARTLETT: I mean, you’ve been guilty of it yourself - critiquing people on the basis of their physical attributes - when you were talking about the Prime Minister’s bottom.

GERMAINE: I wasn’t talking about her backside, I was talking about her jacket. 

LIAM BARTLETT: You were talking about the size of her bum.

GERMAINE: I said “so you’ve got a big arse, get on with it.” Most of us have big arses. 

LIAM BARTLETT: Can you imagine a bloke saying that about a head of state, talking about their backside? Can you imagine a bloke getting away with that? That’s exactly what Samantha Brick’s talking about. 

GERMAINE: You can say whatever you like about a head of state. Have you see the cartoons of David Cameron as a condom?

An extract from the relevant part of the THE GOOD WIFE 60 Minute story follows:

Interestingly, the phrase "Head of State" is not mentioned anywhere in the Australian Constitution. Nor is that phrase mentioned in two outriding constitutional documents - The Statute of Westminster 1931 and the Australia Act 1986. The Prime Minister may be referred to as the "Head of Government" but never as "Head of State".

But Liam Bartlett is not the only reporter in the media who has made this mistake. Hellen Dalley made a similar inference in respect of John Howard on the Nine Network's Sunday progam, and which later aired on Sky News on Sunday, 16 March 2003.

In the following movie Helen Dalley implied that John Howard was a Head of State:

It's a pity that such high standing reporters do not fully understand our system of Government. Then again, most in the media are of the belief that we actually elect our Prime Minister - another furphy pushed onto the Australian people!