Congratulations to Craig Foster AM for being selected Australian of the Year 2023 for NSW!
How timely!
Imagine having the Australian of the Year from one state as our head of state who would replace the King/Queen in an Australian constitutional republic.
There is still a Governor for NSW. There is still a Governor-General for the Commonwealth. There are still the 5 other state Governors who will all continue to maintain our parliaments and keep them humming along as normal.
There would be a round robin of the states so that once every 7 years each state can share the office of head of state. Let’s say in 2023 it is the turn for a man from NSW, then in 2030 it would be the turn for a woman from NSW to be Australian of the Year.
It would be a ceremonial role. Very public. They would meet foreign presidents, perhaps open sessions of parliament, open shows and events, give presentations and awards at schools, and preside over many other events as the guest of honour.
As head of state they would have the most important and prestigious role of unifying all seven divisible Crowns of Australia, just as the King/Queen does now. No one else can do that. It is a very special role. Only Australia’s head of state has that honour.
In the next few years we could experiment with an election process to select the Australian of the Year in a particular state.
I don’t mean to put Craig Foster under pressure. Having been elected to the ARM leadership this is a great opportunity to explore options for a republic.
One option is to convert an existing institution we are all familiar with, modify it so that it is suitable for the task, and test this as a vehicle for replacing the King/Queen with an Australian to serve a fixed term as our head of state.
https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/congratulations-to-2023-nsw-australians-of-year