The colony of New South Wales, the Commonwealth of Australia... they were not good institutions. Never did they represent the best interests of the people living on this continent.

They have bred systemic corruption, racism, and a profound disrespect for the environment. They functioned for the benefit of overseas investors - leaving always the social and environmental deficit for us to clean up. Dams, clear-felling, timber plantations, open cut mines, nuclear dumps, military bases - a disaster from start to finish, and all for what?


For the highest private debt in the entire planet?

For the biggest inequality in life-expectancy, health services and infrastructure between settlers and indigenous in the world?

For a refugee policy that contravenes international human rights law and prompts official criticism from the United Nations?

To be ranked 3rd last in a list of 65 countries assessed on their contribution to international environmentalism?

To present our future generations with no clear idea how they will make their livelihoods in a post-mining economy?

I can appreciate the role of the colony and the Commonwealth to bring us to where we are now. But the more I consider the facts, the more it's clear that these institutions must be replaced by a federation of independent nations - an organising body that represents the people on this continent, not overseas investors.

It requires personal responsibility, confidence and the willingness to govern our own affairs. The royalist slogan in the '90s was, "Don't risk it". How much worse must this all get before we decide to "risk it"?

Sovereign Union is the correct place to start.