With the first anniversary of the failed ‘Voice’ referendum last week, the losing side ramped up the whining and tanties to epic proportions. Big surprise, of course: one thing the left will never do is admit that they were wrong and that their latest brainfart policy was wisely rejected by the adult voters because it’s just bad. No, instead, it’s been all whinging that ‘we wuz robbed’, ‘misinformation’, ‘racism’… all the usual leftist epithets-as-argument.
But if the Voice losers have been at it for a year, they’re a pale shadow of the Republic losers, who haven’t been able to shut up for 25 long, tiresome, years.
They’re at it again.
King Charles III begins his five-day visit to Australia this week, his first as King of this most cherished of realms, and making him only the second British monarch to visit these shores. But it is a visit without purpose or substance, serving as nothing more than public relations, and a reminder of Australia being shackled to a profoundly undemocratic institution.
Long after the flag waving and gladhanding, the bonhomie of a backyard barbecue, fleet review and garden tours, and perhaps cuddling a cute animal, we will be stuck with a man as our head of state who believes he was appointed by God, can be succeeded only by a family member observing one religion, and is not Australian.
Yada, yada, yada… we heard all this crap in ’99, and we weren’t buying it then, either.
Conservatives argue the monarchy provides stability and certainty, and monarchical powers are vested in the governor-general, and it offers only ceremonial linkage. It is true the Australia Act 1986 terminated the power of the UK parliament to legislate regarding Australia and abolished any remaining legal appeals to a British court. But we remain a constitutional monarchy.
Yes, and…? Constitutional monarchies tend to be strong, stable countries. Many of the most despotic, oppressive nations are republics. Five of the 10 freest nations are constitutional monarchies; of the 10 most oppressive nations, all but one are republics.
The genius of the Australian (and New Zealand and Canadian) system is, as Mark Steyn put it, that the ultimate power is vested in someone who not only has no say in day-to-day politics, but is physically absent most of the time. Under the constitution, the duties required of a head of state are carried out by our Governor-General, an Australian acting on the advice of Australian ministers and with no interference from the palace.
The whining is far from done, though. It’s always everyone else’s fault that the overwhelming majority of Australians told the Republican moaners to get stuffed.
Republicans have been perpetually disappointed by Labor governments. Paul Keating is the only prime minister to argue for a republic and present a model for a republic to parliament, in 1995. Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard did nothing to elevate the idea despite it being a 2007 election commitment and long part of Labor’s platform […]
Perhaps the opportunity to relaunch a republic campaign was during Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership.
You don’t get more comically detached from reality than that. The idea that Turnbull, loathed on practically all sides of politics and who ruled with the elite detachment of the Sun King in Versailles, could have persuaded Australians to completely change their minds is hilarious. Especially the notion that Turnbull could have turned around the Labor voters who overwhelmingly rejected a Republic in 1999. Or has Troy Bramston chosen to forget that the biggest No vote in that referendum was in Labor seats? The Liberal voters of John Howard’s own electorate voted Yes, while the Labor voters in then-Labor leader Kim Beazley’s electorate vote a great, resounding, ‘No’.
The Australian Republic Movement has been utterly and comically inept and invisible in recent decades.
Indeed. Including this contribution from Bramston, who clearly signals his detachment from ordinary Australians.
Charles’ coronation should have turbocharged republicanism. The pomp and pageantry were ridiculous. In Westminster Abbey, Charles was anointed with holy oil in the symbol of the cross on his head, breast and hands, as if touched by God to lead us. There was a parade of swords, maces and jewels; he sat on the Stone of Destiny; and Prince William performed the Homage of the Royal Blood.
On the contrary, the pomp and pageantry reminded the millions who watched of the deep history of liberty of which Australia is a beneficiary.
Grinding their teeth, the left eventually admit that they lost in 1999, and they’re still losing today.
It was a profound mistake for Anthony Albanese to prioritise the voice to parliament over a republic. Matt Thistlethwaite, formerly assistant minister for the republic, told me that if the voice referendum succeeded a republic would be next. The defeat of the voice killed the prospect of a republic referendum in the foreseeable future.
In July, Thistlethwaite’s ministry was abolished […] Nothing could state more that Labor has no intention of putting a republic on the agenda than terminating the portfolio responsible for it.
Fetch me my tiniest violin, Jeeves.
Next month marks the 25th anniversary of the referendum on Australia becoming a republic. That cause – which this paper strongly supported – offered the right course for Australia then and now.
Fortunately for us, a clear majority of Australians sensibly disagreed. Maybe it’s time you just admitted it’s a bad idea?
Ha, ha, who am I kidding?
