Chapter 9 The First Meeting
A ray of morning sun shines through the leaves outside the window on the glass of the room, and then reflects on Arthur's eyes.
Arthur reached out his hand uncomfortably and tried to block the naughty light, but found that he couldn't completely block it no matter what.
After a while, Arthur slowly opened his eyes. His brain suddenly turned on. He sat up suddenly and looked at the clock on the wall. It was already past seven in the morning.
"Oops, it's almost eight o'clock. I hope I can catch up with the meeting." Arthur said to himself, but he kept busy on his hands and quickly got dressed.
According to tradition, someone should be responsible for Arthur's food and daily life, but Arthur really wasn't used to the arrogance of others dressing him, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.
After finally washing up, it was already more than ten minutes before I left the house.
After leaving the door, the two guards at the door immediately saluted Arthur respectfully: "Good morning, Your Highness!" "
Good morning, the prime ministers didn't come to see me, right?" Arthur asked.
Today is April 29, the third day after Arthur and his party arrived in Australia.
According to the agreement between Arthur and several prime ministers, a preliminary meeting on the detailed system of the Principality of Australia will be held at eight o'clock this morning in order to better improve this country.
It was almost eight o'clock now, and Arthur didn't want to be late for his first meeting.
Although as a monarch, no one would say anything if Arthur was late for the meeting, but after all, he had just arrived, and he still had to leave a good impression on his subordinates and all the people.
"No, Your Highness," the guard responded.
call!
Arthur breathed a sigh of relief and went downstairs to the conference room.
In the two days since he came to Australia, Arthur took a short tour of the Government Building and the vicinity of Sydney.
The first impression that today's Australia or New South Wales gave Arthur was that of tradition and backwardness.
Because the main sources of income are minerals and agriculture, and a considerable part of the income was previously sent to the British mainland, this also resulted in the economic conditions of several colonies not being very good, and the income of colonial residents was not high.
Generally speaking, Australia is still in a stage where everything is waiting for improvement, but now that it is independent as a new principality, the economic situation is bound to be much better than before.
Entering the conference room, the six prime ministers had been waiting for a long time.
"Good morning, Your Highness." Everyone saluted.
"Well, everyone, without further ado, let's get started." Arthur said after sitting on the main seat. "Your Highness, although under the orders of Her Majesty the Queen, Australia has become a unified and independent country in name. But in fact, as of now, except for the nominal unity, our system is still based on the previous six Large colonies. I think we first need to change the colonial system. I suggest turning the six colonies into six autonomous states, and the capital will vote. And we can form a unified federal government based on these six autonomous states. We, the prime ministers, will become the governors of the new autonomous states, and we will be uniformly responsible to your highness." New South Wales Prime Minister Evan said.
Because he once presided over the drafting of the Federal Council Bill, Prime Minister Evan is still very clear about Australia's current status quo.
The biggest problem in Australia now is that the major colonies operate independently and do not interfere with each other. Although nominally unified into one country, Australia, in reality it is more like six independent countries.
"Do the other prime ministers have any opinions on this matter?" Arthur turned to look at the others and asked with a smile.
Prime Minister Evan's proposal is basically similar to Australia's original historical process, which was to establish a federal government composed of autonomous states.
The advantage of this is that a unified federal government can be established with minimal changes. The powers in the hands of the prime ministers of each colony have not changed, but have become governors.
Perhaps the major colonies had already reached a consensus at the previous Federal Council, so no Prime Minister had any other opinions at this time.
"I think it is very necessary to establish a unified government in the shortest possible time." Arthur said with a smile when no one spoke: "But the government system still needs to be carefully considered." "In my opinion, Australia
before It is composed of your six major colonies. The colonies operate independently and do not interfere with each other. But now that a unified country has been formed, I think the title of colony should indeed be cancelled." Arthur looked at Prime Minister Evan and said with a smile : "Prime Minister Evan's proposal is very good. I agree with the six colonies being changed into six states. The names and capitals remain unchanged, but they are unified and responsible to the new national government." "As for whether the newly established states should be given
autonomy , I think each state only needs to be responsible for the government affairs within the state, and defense and other matters should be responsible for the unified national government. What do you think?" Arthur looked at everyone with a smile.
"Your Highness, I wonder what the new government election system is like? Is it modeled on the government system of the British Empire?" Prime Minister Evan asked tentatively.
If we talk about representatives of the constitutional monarchy, then the British Empire definitely has a place.
As one of the first countries to launch a constitutional monarchy, the British Empire relied on the Industrial Revolution to quickly become the empire that dominates the world and the sun never sets.
The advanced system of the British Empire also owes a lot to this, which is why Prime Minister Evan asked so.
"It cannot be denied that the system of the British Empire is indeed very advanced. But I think every country has its own national conditions, and we cannot copy them all. But there are many aspects that can be learned. I plan to establish a House of Lords and a House of Commons. Members of the House of Commons It is elected by the states and allocated according to the proportion of the number of people." Arthur said with a smile: "The House of Lords is elected by the royal family members and the people designated by me, as well as the House of Commons. The House of Commons is responsible for proposing laws, electing cabinet members, amending laws, etc. The upper house is responsible for reviewing laws proposed by the lower house, reviewing elected cabinet members, supervising officials, impeaching officials, amending the constitution, etc. The upper and lower houses will be one of the most important administrative agencies in our country, and the election of its members must also be cautious."
The system of Houses of Lords and Commons proposed by Arthur is actually similar to the British system. The House of Commons is controlled by political parties and civilians, while the House of Lords is in the hands of the monarch.
Although the House of Commons also has the power to propose and amend laws and elect cabinet members, the House of Lords is the final review body.
Without the consent of the House of Lords, all proposals and election results of the House of Commons can be invalidated, which is also one of Arthur's trump cards.
According to Arthur's proposal, the future Houses of Lords and Lower House will basically be in Arthur's hands, and cabinet members can be replaced at any time with those loyal to Arthur.
(End of chapter)