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Sign a Mandate for your State Now!
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The Independent Member for Barambah is truely a representative of her electorate. Letters to the Governor General
from: Sir
William Deane Dear Sir William Your Excellency, I am making re-presentation to you on behalf of the constituents of the Barambah Electorate (Queensland) who have approached me with various concerns regarding the implementation of the Goods and Services tax legislation. You are possibly aware of a petition circulating Australia wide opposing the GST. The reasons for the circulation of this petition are many, but two of them seem to be of paramount importance to the people. Firstly, the people of Australia dispute the Prime Minister, Mr. Howard's belief that he has a mandate for implementing this tax. Mr. Howard's Government received approximately 37% of the Primary vote, with other parties and Independents receiving the balance in protest against the GST. It was second preferences (seemingly in contradiction to S. 30 of the Constitution) that put Mr. Howard's government over the line. Secondly, the current questionable model of the GST is not the GST that was taken to the people during the ‘98 Federal election and theretore it is viewed as a fraud. If one bought a $2000 fridge and was given an alternative without their assent, the issue could and would probably end up in a court of law. Could you please inform us of the required number of signatures needed to allow you to enact your, powers as Governor General of Australia, as noted in Section S.59 of the Constitution'? As your position of Governor General is the Australian people's check and balance against unwise and unwanted Government decisions, will you pledge to support the people's will in this matter in the event that the required number of signatures should be received? I anxiousIv await your response and thank you for vour time. Yours sincerely DOROTHY
PRATT MLA Letter No. 2Your office's lack of response to my previous letter concerning this matter is sadly indicative of the disdain with which politicians are treating the people who vote them into office. My constituents, who incidentally voted overwhelmingly to retain the Monarchy, see it has being the height of insult in view of the enormous resources your office must have at its disposal. To say they are disappointed with both your lack of response to their concerns, and Prime Minister John Howard' s equal lack of response, is an understatement. With all due respect, Sir, common courtesy in this age of technology dictates there is no excuse for not sending at least an acknowledgement of receipt. Yours sincerely DOROTHY
PRATT MLA Letter No. 3Ms
Dorothy Pratt MLA Government
House Ref 200013150 Dear Ms Pratt I am writing In reply to your letter of 28th February 2000 to the Governor-General concerning the GST and must apologies for the delay In doing so. While the points people have been making to you about the voting figures and the precise model of the GST can be understood, you would appreciate, as a Member of the Legislative Assembly, that what counts at the end of the day are the numbers of seats held In both the House of Representatives and the Senate and what legislation thats actually passed. So far as your question about the number of signatures required is concerned, I am sorry to disappoint you, but there is no power available to the Governor-General to disallow the GST legislation. To the extent that section 58 of the Constitution provided a power for disallowance of legislation by the Queen, convention would require that it only be exercised on the advice of the Government. Yours sincerely Martin
Bonsey 4 May 2000 Letter No. 4Phone
(07) 4162 1381 QUEENSLAND Dorothy
Pratt MLA 19th May 00 Sir
William Deane Dear Sir William Regarding the letter from your office signed by Official Secretary, Martin Bonsey. I wish to now express my electorate's extreme disappointment in what they, and I, see as being a snow job of immense proportions. For as long as I can remember, Australians have been taught that the Queen, or you as her representative, was a last resort thev could call upon in the event that their Government became so entirely corrupt that they had stopped listening to the people they assume to represent. It has apparently escaped your notice that the Australian government has both stopped listening to, and representing, the people of Australia. and yet your office insists the Queen can only act on the advice of the Government? This was adequately portrayed in the federal seat of Blair when the person who only scored approximately one third of the electorate's vote won the seat. It is evident in the fact that while all Australians have the right to vote, they do not have the right to vote as they see fit (compulsory preferential voting) It is evident in the fact that, according to an Internet statistic page, 66.88% of the participants want the re-introduction of capital punishment. How often have you heard our government speaking about this subject, let alone planning a referendum on it? Would I be correct in assuming from vour office's letter that, if every Australian wrote you a letter opposing the GST, you would refuse to act on that unless the Government asked you to? If the answer to that question is in the affirmative, then my electorate wants me to ask you, with all due respect, Sir William what they are paying you for? What are vour duties here in Australia? Yours sincerely DOROTHY
PRATT MLA Letter No. 5Government
House Ms
Dorothy Pratt, MLA Dear Ms Pratt I write to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 19th May 2000 to the Governor-General. It would not be appropriate for issues of public policy such as the GST to be dealt with, other than through the normal democratic parliamentary, political and electoral processes. Yours sincerely Martin
Bonsey 29 May, 2000 Letter No. 6.Dorothy
Pratt MLA 1st June 00 Mr.
Martin Bonsey Dear Mr. Bonsey Thank you for your letter in response to mv correspondence of the 19th May 00. I do apologise for making your job a little uncomfortable. but it seems to have escaped your notice that you did not answer the one question that my constituents are keen to have answered. The fact that it was hidden in the last paragraph of the letter would indicate that either vou didn't read the letter or you didn't have an answer. You simply told us what we already know. and are regretting immensely. To reiterate the question "...my electorate wants me to ask you, with all due respect, Sir William what they are paying you for? What are your duties here in Australia ?" Yours sincerely DOROTHY
PRATT MLA Finally Letter No. 7Government
House Ref 2000/6/54 Ms
Dorothy Pratt, MLA Dear Ms Pratt Thank you for your letter of Ist June 2000. Please do not apologise, as I do not feel any discomfort from your letter I did not respond to the question in the final paragraph of your letter of 19th May as I assumed it was merely rhetorical. If, however, your electors have a serious interest in the role of the Governor-General, you may wish to refer them to an item with that description on our website www.qa.gov.au and should you wish to be able to assist them, you may like to read George Winterton's book Parliament, the Executive and the Governor-General MUP 1983. Yours sincerely Martin
Bonsey 6 June, 2000
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