Update In view of continuing interest in this topic, I’ve put it back up to the top of the page. New commenters include PM Lawrence and John Craig. Now read on …

My column in today’s Fin (subscription required) is an expansion of points I’ve made previously on this blog. After defending the bicameral system, I go on to the polticisation of the GGs office and advocate direct election (following Ken Parish and David Solomon). My final para

Of course, an elected President would be more likely than an appointee to come into conflict with the Prime Minister and therefore with the majority in the House of Representatives. To analysts fixated on the idea that Westminster is the model of democracy, this seems like a catastrophic outcome. The Australian public knows better and has voted for checks on the autocratic power of Prime Ministers whenever it has had the chance.

As a result of this piece I received a paper by Clerk of the Senate, Harry Evans which, with his permission I’m making available here (word file). The key quote on Westminster

The Westminster system as described in the current paradigm is a relatively recent development. Originally, the system was described (classically, by Walter Bagehot) as the electors choosing a parliament, the parliament choosing a government, and the parliament holding the government responsible, if necessary by ejecting it from office between elections. Similarly, the mandate theory, that governments have a mandate to govern by legislating as they wish after an election, is a recent rationalisation of this relatively recent development of so-called Westminster government. In sum, the Westminster/mandate paradigm is a rationalisation of what may reasonably be regarded as a degeneration of a system.

Certainly Australia does not have, and was not intended by its founders to have, a Westminster/mandate system. In so far as it was known to the framers of the Constitution, as an emerging phenomenon, they rejected it

As is apparent from the names of our houses of Parliament, the framers of the Australian constitution preferred the American model of democracy to the Westminster system, still theoretically based on a mixture of democracy, aristocracy and monarchy.

It’s important to note that the mandate doctrine does have a role to play in Britain which still has an unelected Upper House. I had a bit more to say about mandate theory here.