FORMER West Australian premier Geoff Gallop says Australia would get a better Federal Parliament and superior ministers if it moved to an American-type system.
Professor Gallop, now at Sydney University, will say in his Hawke Lecture tomorrow that a strong case can be made for Australia having an ''executive presidency'' separate from Parliament.
''Not only does it accord with the evolution of our system in the direction of presidential politics, but it carries the possibility for cabinet ministers to be selected from outside Parliament.''
He says in the lecture, to be delivered in Adelaide, that many Australians who would be effective ministers ''are simply not willing to stand for the Parliament''.
The first step to such a change would be a referendum to make Australia a republic with an elected president. That would be followed by further constitutional change.
