Congratulations to the new Premier and his team. Top of the agenda is for NSW to secede from the Federation. Let the other States pay a share of the $380 billion for the submarines. Let them risk being part of AUKUS. West Australia is the wealthiest State in the nation. It can certainly carry the AUKUS costs without NSW’s contribution, so it’s not like we don’t care about the rest of the country.
Could we secede? The Constitution says there should be an Australia-wide referendum before a State can leave the Federation. There are already many examples of Australia not following the Constitution. AUKUS and the submarines were never discussed in Parliament even though the Constitution says the Parliament must approve expenditures.
Given these precedents, we don’t need to follow the Constitution to secede. All we’d have to do is set up a border crossing with Queensland like happened during the pandemic. And there is already a very long train station at Albury built to accommodate the once different track widths in Victoria and NSW. We would just use it now as a patrolled border crossing. We already have NSW trade representatives working overseas in competition with the other States’ marketers. We’re virtually a separate country, so let’s finalise our independence.
There are many international benefits, too. Indonesia is unhappy about the AUKUS deal. Being EXAUKUS when we’re a separate a country, we could develop better relations with our near neighbour. We might have the NSW Embassy in Bali. Our current Embassy in Jakarta has to manage most of the Australian tourists’ problems that emanated from Bali anyway.
If NSW left, West Australia would probably follow – it doesn’t want to be hit for the cost of the submarines regardless of how much money it has. The other states might follow, too. Australia has only been going for 123 years so what’s the big deal? Europe changes its borders every couple of decades! Each colony, a.k.a State, survived quite well on its own before 1900. Imagine what power our beloved island would have with six representatives in the United Nations instead of only the one.
While we’re at it, becoming our own country gives us the excuse to change our name. How many of us identify as ‘Welsh’, or ‘new’ or ‘south’? AUKUS is an acronym. Ours could be ODMOBS! It stands for Oceanic, Diverse, Multicultural, Open-for-business, the Bush and Sydney.
Let’s do it, Mr Minns. Let’s secede. Go for ODMOBS.
Carol Dance reviewed hundreds of plays for her local newspaper while working as a book editor at University of NSW Press. She then completed an MBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of NSW. She is an environmentalist, and ethical capitalist.
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