Life of Riley: The very latest draft

The very latest draft

I've taken the view that, in the end, to allow the whole preamble to the Constitution to fall over because of a personal passion for a word — "profit" — that we may all love very much would be a poor ordering of priorities. We now have within our grasp an historic opportunity to include in our Constitution, in our own contemporary words, a reference to the key role of the business class in our society.

It was extremely important for us to embrace and celebrate the indigenous entrepreneur within the Australian community. I believe this is a significant further step towards reconciliation, which has heretofore been muddied by crass expressions of opposing interests.

In this spirit of national unity, I present to you the very latest version of the draft preamble of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia:

Here's hoping (touch wood) the Commonwealth of Australia continues to serve our collective good.

We the Australian business community commit ourselves to this Constitution proud that national unity has been forged despite our many ancestries of varying fiscal interest; never forgetting the sacrifices of all who defended our markets in time of war; upholding the rule of law; (... the Abo bit goes here ...); thankful of cheap labour contributed by generations of immigrants; mindful of the ready resources and energies afforded by our unique natural environment; supportive of free enterprise and business opportunity; valuing independence and a national spirit which binds all to us despite adversity.

By Dave Riley
<dhell@ozemail.com.au>

From GLW issue 372