by Betty Smout
However, changes do not occur without impetus. Republicans are continuing to help provide that necessary push—perhaps gentler than we would like, but still there.
Unity is strength and we should never lose sight of the main objective: an Australian head of state. The great majority of Australians, be they descendants of the original inhabitants, or early colonists, or from the splendid variety of newer Aussies, agree that our head of state should be an Australian citizen.
Some people erroneously argue that our Governor-General is our head of state, so there is no need to alter the status quo. The Governor General, of course, is but a representative of the British monarch, who is officially our head of state.
Under a republic, Australia would remain a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and that the British Monarch would remain the titular Head of the Commonwealth. However, it is a fact that of the 54 countries in the Commonwealth only 15 still retain the British Monarch as their Head of State. Except for the UK, in each of those countries, the position could be viewed as an anomaly and an anachronism.
When the issue becomes centre stage again, hopefully soon, the question for a plebiscite should be the one question that has never been asked of the Australian people: “Do you want an Australian citizen as head of state? Yes or no?”.
Once that has been answered in the affirmative, then there are many ways of electing our head of state. This should be open to a full, thorough, and informed, discussion.
The possible selection procedures are well known. Much tolerant discussion of varied interpretations should proceed before any vote is taken. Tolerance and unity are the positions that all republicans should take into the future.
The lesson of the 1999 referendum – that disunity amongst republican-minded Australians brings defeat – must not be ignored. In the past few years there have been three Republican Gatherings in Australia attended by representatives of different republican groups. The aim is to strengthen the links and be unified for the next step.
What we must remember is that what our generation does now will be the inheritance of future generations. We must get it right for their sake.
(Betty Smout is the Deputy Convenor of the Queensland branch of the Australian Republican Movement. This article was originally published, in a slightly different form, in the February 2007 edition of Armlet.)
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I don’t believe the question could be “Do you want an Australian citizen as head of state? Yes or no?”. As in (I think) 1907 the high court ruled the governor general as the head of state, with the Queen as sovereign. Even if you do or don’t agree with this for legal reasons I believe the question would have to be something along the lines of “Do you want Australia to change its current constitution from a constitutional monarchy to a republic? Yes or no”.
Personally I’m against the use of a plebiscite as I believe if we vote we should vote on the republic, we should see the republican model put forward and vote on it.
Also I was wondering your article (extremely well written) seems to focus on the issue of not having an Aussie head of state. Now if we completely ignore the GG issue, I was wondering if you would be against Australia establishing a resident monarchy? One where the monarch would live in Australia, basically taking over the role of the GG.
Thank you
1. The head of state is the Queen, that’s already been discussed by an eminent lawyer on this site in the article ‘Who is the Australian head of state’.
2. The plebiscite will be non-binding so therefore it will not replace a referendum on the model which will need to come later. However, it will provide a proper expression of the will of the nation in this area. Monarchists oppose it because they know that most people want a republic and therefore they will lose. Simple as that.
3. The ‘bunyip aristocracy’ was an idea suggested before by William Wentworth in 1853, lambasted and dropped after a speech by Daniel Denihy. It was then and still is an utterly ridiculous idea. The monarchy is completely undemocratic and inegalitarian. Why on earth would anyone attempt to impose a new home-grown class system on Australia? I don’t think even many monarchists would support that idea.