The quarter of a million dollar men

The Australian Political System Australia has borrowed its political system predominantly from two countries:  the United Kingdom and the United States.  It's as if the country is a hybrid of the two.   Look at the money.  The coins have Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom upon them, but they're called dollars.   The governmental body is called the Parliament, borrowed from the UK, but it's a bicameral parliament composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate, borrowed from the USA.  The Aussie House of Representatives has 150 members, elected for 3-year terms.   The Aussie Senate has 76 members, each serving 6-year terms except for the territorial senators (Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory) who serve 3-year terms.  The coalition controlling the Aussie House runs the government.  The Prime Minister of Australia is the leader of the party (or coalition of parties) that control the Aussie House.  In this regard, the system is very much like UK's.   The British prime minister, like the Australian one, doesn't get selected by the voters.  The voters just select their representatives, and the representatives decide who the leader of their party is.  So if the Australian prime minister has, say, a sex scandal with a chubby intern, like Bill Clinton did, he cannot be impeached.  Only his own party can question if the intern was good-looking and worthy of a sex scandal and if the prime minister deserves to be removed as leader of his party or congratulated for a pickup well done. It's always time for a party in Australia Australia could be best described as a two-and-a-half party state.   Two parties, the Liberal and Labor, dominate, with the National Party stepping in to grab its half of the spoils.  As in all countries, one party -- in this case, the Liberal -- assumes the stance of representing the business owners, the corporations, the moneyed elites.  This would be the equivalent of the Republicans in the United States or the Conservatives in the UK.  The other, Labor, presumes to stand for the interests of Arnold Average, a cousin to the Democrats in the USA and Labour in the UK.  The truth is that both the main Australian parties are being paid out of the same corporate money bowl.  The National Party plays a unique role.  It knows the government will be run by either Labor or the Liberals and steps in to push the balance.  On the national level, it forms a coalition with one of the other two parties who will wind up running the government.  On the state level, the National Party can play more of a mover & shaker role.  In Queensland, the National Party rocks with the best of them.  It's quite possible in state elections that a National Party candidate will actually win a position and be able to collect kickbacks just as sizeable as a candidate from the Liberal and Labor parties. Bald and short John Howard was the prime minister of Australia until the end of 2007, ending 11 years of sweet times in power.  Don't cry for him.  George Bush gave him a US Freedom Medal just before, he, Bush, left office.  The Howard Liberal/National government gave way to a Labor government run by the taller and hairier Kevin Rudd.  Elections must be held at least once every three years.  The Prime Minister can ask the Governor-General (see below) to call an election in the Aussie House anytime he pleases, similar in that respect to the British system.  One of the Prime Minister's unspoken responsibilities is to call the election at the most opportune moment for his party.  The prime minister wouldn't, for example, get embroiled in a devastating sex scandal with a chubby intern and then immediately decide to call a fresh election unless he was ecstatic to get his party booted out of office. The Australian Governor-General Australia is not a republic.  It's a constitutional monarchy in the British Commonwealth, known by its full name as the Commonwealth of Australia.  The official numero uno Down Under is the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently Queen Elizabeth II.  Actually, the plumbers union probably has more real power today than the British monarch  If the plumbers collectively stopped unclogging Australian toilets, it would wreak more havoc in Australia than the British monarch deciding to divest herself of Australia. Everyone knows it's a game.   Do you really think China and Taiwan, deep down, believe they're one and the same country?  Yeah, about as much as Australians believe the British queen, as Queen of Australia, has a say about decisions made Down Under.   All the same, because this game is being played,  someone has to stand in for the British monarch on a day-to-day basis.  This person is the Australian governor-general. Before 1965, all the governor-generals, apart from two, were British.  If you really want to be finicky about it,  these two exceptions were still British citizens because a unique Australian citizenship didn't exist until 1949.  Up until the Sixties, the British government did have some say who held the job.  That ship has long since sailed.  All governor-generals since have been Australian and selected by the Australian prime minister, who must then get his choice approved (= rubberstamped) by the British monarch.  The Governor-Generalship is a sweetheart deal, the best deal going in Australian politics.    It's a largely ceremonial role which pays AUD 394,000 per year, more than prime minister earns.   Up until 2001, the governor-generals didn't even have to pay tax on that payday.   The already ultra-rich British queen put an end to that tea party when she agreed to finally pay taxes.  As tempting as it would've been for any governor-general to give the British queen the finger after that change, doing so would only be biting the hand that feeds you.  You see, if you told the queen to go to hell, Australia doesn't need her and is quite fine without her, then you're out of a job as governor-general, as the governor-general is the British monarch's image within Australia.  You'd be doing the equivalent of telling yourself to go to hell.  The Australian taxpayer will get bilked any which way the cake is cut.  If Australia finally becomes a republic, the governor-general role will just become known as a president, and the salary will probably go up even more.  When have you heard of politicians ever getting a reduction in salary? The taxpayer will also have to pay to get rid of all the coins with the queen's young face on them and re-mint new ones with a wombat's derriere or a dingo pissing.   Australia may as well remain a constitutional monarchy.