John takes his hat off to our Australian Constitution!

Start speaking of the Australian Constitution to most people, and their eyes are likely to glaze over before you even get to the end of the word, retired lawyer John Christensen tells me from his home in Canberra.

But for the past five years, John and his wife Marg have been travelling the country doing just that.

With a long legal career and more than 40 years of experience in legislative drafting (Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department, the ACT Government, and Papua New Guinea), John developed a keen interest in our Constitution.

And he believes that it is a story more Australians should be familiar with.

“Well it's part of our history,” John said. “And unless you learn it at school, or have to know it for your job, how are you going to know about it? It's really a great mystery to most people.”

It could be, he said, that the story of our own federation seems fairly “ho-hum” when compared to the experience of the United States, with its own constitution forged in revolution and war.

“We're very laid-back in this country, we don't like to be seen to be passionate about anything, but our experience has been, on the whole, valuable,” he said.

“We have a federal constitution that was devised in Australia by Australians and it's been fairly successful,... on the whole, our constitution has worked pretty well.”

But it is a document very few people know about, he added.

So, since 2016, John and Marg have taken it upon themselves to “shed a bit of light” on the history of our constitution with a show of their own devising.

“It's called ‘Hats off to our Federal Constitution,” John said. “I use a lot of hats as props during the talks, because we try to lighten it up.”

When the six Australian colonies began looking to form a national government in the late 19th century, they looked at other countries for inspiration, he explained.

“The Australians were drawn to the American experience in preference to Canada in fact,” John said. 

“So when I'm talking about the US influence, I put on my ‘Uncle Sam’ hat; If I'm talking about referendums, I put on the Swiss hat — referendums were a Swiss idea and Australians embraced that.”

The 20–30 minute talks, which usually include at least one musical number from John, cover how the document came about and some of the personalities involved.

John and Marg have now presented their talk more than 130 times all across Australia, in libraries, Rotary and Probus clubs, U3As, Men's Sheds, schools, churches, and private homes. They don’t charge for the presentation, funding it all out of their own pockets.

While John sees this as a public education exercise to raise the profile of our Australian Constitution, he is also planting the seed of an idea to see it become a truly Australian document.

“Our Constitution, despite the fact that we're an independent nation, still sits on the UK statute books,” John said.

“Wouldn't it be lovely if we had it in our Australian ones? I talk about relocating it to an Australian document, not changing it, we are not talking about a republic or anything like that – just moving what we've got to an Australian Document.”

To do so would require a referendum and, while it is not something John expects to see in his lifetime — indeed, it may never happen —  it is something he believes is worth talking about.

“I have no aim, intention, or energy to start any political movement. I'm just putting out an idea and, if it gets embraced by someone, all well and good, but I'm not too fussed. 

“I'm just happy to wander around talking to people about this — and we've enjoyed that very much. We've seen a lot of the country and we've met hundreds and hundreds of people. It has been a great experience and a great privilege.”

John Christensen will be presenting his ‘Hats Off to Our Constitution’ talk at Orange City Library on Tuesday, May 24 from 5.30pm.

Book your place online, via Eventbrite, or call Orange City Library on 6393 8132.

 You can also read more about John’s proposal to relocate the Australian Constitution at www.ozhomenow.net or at “An Australian Constitution” on Facebook.