The meaning of the word security has changed in the last decade or so. Where once it meant stability in defence from the Hobbesian nature of international relations; it has been turned inward to focus on domestic security. So much so that recent op-eds in the Washington Post have made the claim that a city that is not secure - is a failed one. Where once war was deemed an emergency period, with terrorism, Governments have claimed a permanent domestic emergency. This is at odds with Australian Republicanism.

John Locke is one of the most influential writers of Liberalism. His writings directly influenced the founding of the first post-enlightenment Government in the Unites States of America. At the James Madison's Montpelier , one of the most prominent displays is a glass encased copy of Locke's Two Treatises of Government .

Arbitrary Government and Tyranny

Locke's second book contains sections on tyranny and resistance.

... whenever legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves in a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience, and left to the common refuge, which god has provided for all men, against force and violence.

The keyword in that paragraph is arbitrary . The point of liberal democracy is law and order. Once government acts in an arbitrary manner toward those under its jurisdiction then it has broken the bounds of the constitution which describes the limits of executive and legislative authority.

Tyranny does not need to be absolute to be destructive; it only needs to be insidious to pollute the polity, society and economy. Recent legislation from the Australian government has placed into law the ability for Ministers in the Executive Cabinet to act in an arbitrary manner.

An example is the Migration Act ;

Minister not under duty to consider whether to exercise power

(4) The Minister does not have a duty to consider whether to exercise the power under subsection (2), whether he or she is requested to do so by any person, or in any other circumstances.

Minister to exercise power personally

(5) The power under subsection (2) may only be exercised by the Minister personally.

When that prerogative is exercised we cease to become a nation of laws, and instead become a nation of men. Arbitrary government inevitably leads to tyranny and kleptocracy, the two most destructive forms of social organisation .

If The Constitution Is Breached

Locke writes that if the government succumbs to the negative passions of arbitrary government then resistance is permissible;

by this breach of trust they [legislators] forfeit the power, the people have put into their hands, for quite contrary ends, and it devolves the people, who have a right to ensure their original liberty, and, by the establishment of a new legislative, provide for their own safety and security, which is the end for which they are in society.

In that paragraph he advocates establishing a new legislature as the old one which has fallen into arbitrary government has lost their authority by their actions.

The national security state is an alignment of the executive, legislative and judicial that can act outside of the constitution and normal legal processes when the government believes an emergency exists that threatens the complete political and social order.

Giorgio Agamben has called this homo sacer ; when an individual is reduced to bare life, without legal or civil rights. The Tampa Affair is an Australian example of the national security state and homo sacer combining to produce an inferior and arbitrary outcome.

Refugees were pitched to the electorate as not only an emergency, but also a security issue. The media images conferred with this political portrayal of the event by a five hundred million dollar Australian Navy frigate pulling refugees out of the water.

The threat to Australia's sovereignty by this small number of refugees was so high that we paid large sums to neighbouring nations and islands to keep them outside of Australia. As part of the Pacific Solution in 2002 we payed 48 million to Nauru and 29 million to the PNG.

The refugee issue also led to the Migration Act Amendment which was quoted above in the article describing arbitrary powers being conferred on the minister overseeing immigration.

Australian Republicanism and homo sacer

Australian Republicanism is predicated on legal equity amongst all individuals under the jurisdiction of the government. It does not discriminate between citizens and non-citizens, or minorities and majorities. If you are an individual under the jurisdiction of the government your legal and civil rights are not only secure, but uniform amongst all individuals.

This philosophy can be seen in Avocadia's Australian Bill of Rights ;

I have the right to all rights expressed herein if I am an individual who is a citizen of Australia, if I am an individual within the jurisdiction of Australia, or if I am an individual held by, or in the charge of any individual, group or organisation that is a citizen of Australia, incorporated within Australia, trades within Australia, or is commanded by the Australian government.

While liberalism defines rights as natural and a component of being human - which they are - they can still suffer under the coercive and corrosive power that government wields with its monopoly on power. Republicanism seeks to formalise the legal and civil rights in not only the constitution but the political framework of government. This is the Madisonian and Harpurian republic at work.

Under Australian Republicanism a failed government is one that;

• does not dictate the rights of all individuals from arbitrary government in the constitution. (See Avocadia's Bill of Rights)
• whose legislative does not stop the executive from acting outside of the constitution.
• whose executive does not stop the legislative from acting outside of the constitution.
• impedes individuals from stopping the legislative and executive acting outside of the constitution.

In all these areas the Australian and State governments are not constructed to provide for these outcomes.

Charles Harpur believed fully in the virtue of humanity and for the faith that is in them . Harpur saw the inequity, kleptocracy and burdens that governments place on the people, banishing them from achieving from their full potential.

For instance in a kleptocracy simply travelling requires paying bribes galore. In an aristocracy there is a tax burden simply to maintain the aristocrats and their non-meritorious social and political structure. Even liberal democracy carries its burdens when implemented inefficiently which we are starting to see with governments acting under an overly-centralised national security state.

The impositions are real and significant.

Australian republicanism believes that political, social, cultural and economic prosperity is achieved at the point of highest interdependence between individuals. That point is maximum liberty.

Australian Republicans seek our political, social and economic structures to align as maximum liberty so individuals can achieve individually or collectively as they choose without harm, imposition or coercion.

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More Reading on Charles harpur

• Charles Harpur
• Gary Sauer-Thompson
• James Madison
• John Locke
• Giorgio Agamben
• Bill of Rights
• Pacific Solution
• The Individualist Streak in Australian Republicanism
• Political Rationalism
• Australian Republican Identity Politics
• Universalism in Australian Republicanism
• Liberalism, Civic Nationalism and Republicanism
• James Madison on War
• The National Security State and Australian Republicanism
• Australian Republicanism And Future Democratic Forms
• James Monroe's Political Freedom
• Tree of Liberty, The