If Australia were to become a republic, we would have a unique opportunity to shake up our constitution and our system of government. It would be tempting to just shift a few things sideways but otherwise continue on as normal, but Walsh argues for a much more radical approach.

In Reboot, Walsh argues that if we consider a republic we have the opportunity to rethink all aspects of how democracy works in Australia. If we’re changing the constitution anyway, why not give it thorough revision? A top-to-bottom overhaul.

Walsh presents a fast, high-level overview of his proposed changes here, ranging from abolishing the senate, to reforming the role and election practices for the prime minister, the republic’s president, cabinet ministers, and individual representatives, to overhauling how legislation is considered and debated, right through to re-imagining the roles of the federal and state governments.

At the heart Walsh wants to change the system to make the current two-party argumentative lockstep unworkable. He wants a more directly engaged citizenry, representatives who must listen to their constituents, relevant experts in Ministerial roles, and to make the whole thing more transparent

These are admirable goals and hit points that I think anyone remotely interested in Australian politics would agree with.

However, while Walsh’s proposed reform is wide-ranging, I found the suggestions relied on optimism or were a bit shallow to take as a complete blueprint for reform.

Some of the ideas here seemed to rely a bit too much on: “build it and they will come and no-one will try to interpret or act in ways not forseen” for my tastes. I would have liked a bit more rigour in thinking about oversight of the new system generally and how the principles of the new system would be (enforced) in practice. People and organisations like to game and find loopholes in systems to work to their advantage, and the ideas here don’t acknowledge or have enough mechanisms in place to prevent that for my liking.

For example: When discussing how potential members of the proposed Presidential Council of Advisors will be selected Walsh states that “this short listing (by the current council) is not to be done on ideological grounds or on any other basis than one simple principle: those candidates the council of advisors, in its wisdom, believes are likely to receive the most number 1 votes.” This is a lovely sentiment, but it relies too much on assuming that all members of this council will forever act in line with this and not be unduly influenced by lobbying or external pressures or unforeseen future changes in the political landscape. There isn’t any oversight or structure to ensure that they will act in this way, Walsh just expects them to, which for me is not enough for a system to function well long-term.

A bit more grounding of the ideas in examples from other jurisdictions or examples of attempted reforms and similar practices attempted in Australia or elsewhere would have also been welcome. The ideas here are interesting and worth discussion, but they seem to have sprung straight from Walsh’s head and seem a bit flimsy without the grounding context of examples where similar systems or ideas have worked or are working elsewhere.

For a short, easy-to-read conversation starter Reboot fits the bill. The problems identified are on point, the timing is refreshingly contemporary and able to comment on recent Australian and global events such as Rudd-Gillard-Rudd and President Trump. Walsh’s commentary is biting and his suggestions good starting points for a wider discussion. This may not be “the” book that will guide Australia’s democratic reform, but it’s a good springboard to start with.

An advance copy of this book was kindly provided by Melbourne University Press and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.