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ARM MEDIA RELEASE - 25 November 2003
Australia needs a Head of State who is no one's deputy
or representative: Woolcott
Delivering
the Inaugural National Republican Lecture at the National
Press Club in Canberra tomorrow evening, former Australian
Ambassador, High Commissioner, and Secretary of the
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Richard Woolcott
AC, will argue that Australia needs “a Head of
State who is no one else’s deputy or representative”.
Drawing
on his personal experiences and observations from many
years as a diplomat, Mr Woolcott will outline reasons
for the severance of Australia’s constitutional
links with the British monarchy and argue that the establishment
of a republic remains in Australia’s best domestic
and international interests.
“Australia’s
self-confidence, pride and national dignity would be
strengthened by becoming a republic. We need, more than
ever before, as the symbol of a proud, energetic self-confident
and multi-ethnic Australia, a Head of State who is no
else’s deputy or representative; a Head of State
who will be an Australian citizen who will call Australia
home”, Mr Woolcott will argue.
Mr
Woolcott says he is disappointed that Australia remains,
constitutionally, “an unfinished symphony”.
He
will argue that many Australians find our current constitutional
arrangements “outmoded, irrelevant to their backgrounds,
unnecessary and demeaning to our national identity.”
Mr Woolcott will instead maintain that “Our constitutional
arrangements and our symbols should reflect what we
are and what we aspire to be; not what we were.”
Mr
Woolcott will stress that a republic is not inevitable.
Rather, “A Republic will only come into being
when enough Australians throughout the whole country
care enough about the issue to make it happen.”
The
Inaugural National Republican Lecture is sponsored by
the Australian Republican Movement. The Lecture is open
to the public and free of charge.
THE
INAUGURAL NATIONAL REPUBLICAN LECTURE
Richard
Woolcott AC
Away With the Anachronism:
A republic will serve Australia's domestic and international
interests
6pm,
WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER
National Press Club, Canberra
For
more information, to attend the lecture, or to arrange
an interview with Richard Woolcott,
ARM Chair John Warhurst or ARM National Director Allison
Henry,
please contact Jane Castles on act@republic.org.au
Copies
of the lecture will be available at the conclusion of
proceedings or on request.
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