Copernican federalism
Copernican federalism is an analysis of Australian constitutional structures and a paradigm for models establishing Australia as a republic with a directly-elected Head of State.
Background
Although a constitutional monarchy, in practice, Australia has most of the essential features of a federal republic. The modern objectives of Australian republicanism are usually viewed in terms of replacing monarchist institutions, in particular the Governor-General, with republican institutions. In presenting their proposals, republicans have borrowed heavily from countries with parliamentary systems, such as Ireland.
Analysis
Copernican federalism begins with an application of the Copernican principle. The main observation made is that the Queen of Australia is the central institution of the Australian constitutional system. It is from this central authority, that the executive authority of the Governor-General and each of state governors is legally derived. This makes Australia different from other federations, where the head of state at the federal and state levels are different officeholders.
Model development
Proponents of Copernican federalism argue that their perspective on Australian constitutional structures allows republicans to develop constitutional models that are simpler, less controversial and more responsive to public sentiment. Such models would focus on replacing the Queen alone, retaining the governor-general and state governors. They would consider an office of governor as being neither republican nor monarchist.
In replacing the Queen, a model based on Copernican federalism can accommodate a directly-elected head of state without codification of the reserve powers, which currently may be exercised by the Governor-General and state governors.
If aspects of the reserve powers do need to be clarified and formalised, should one of these models for an Australian head of state become established, then it would be possible to make incremental changes to the reserve powers over time; if there is a perceived need to codify a reserve power and only after the proposed change is passed in a referendum.
Criticism
In the report of the 2004 Senate Inquiry republican models based on Copernican federalism were criticised as understating the amount of constitutional change required to establish a republic. Senators queried the potential for duplication and confusion over the roles of the Australian head of state and the Governor-General.