ARM Media Statement - 25 January 1999

Republicans release declaration of principles for an Australian Head of State

Republicans across Australia rallied today from Perth to Sydney to call on Australians to look to the future this Australia Day and to pass a vote of confidence in the nation by voting YES in November's referendum on an Australian Head of State.

Releasing a declaration of principles as to why the nation should have an Australian as its Head of State in Sydney today, the chair of the Australian Republican Movement, Malcolm Turnbull, told a representative gathering of Australians that the November referendum is a vote on our future.

"This is the year we can vote for Australia," said Mr Turnbull, "not for a political party, nor for a politician. But for our own country and for our future.

"This is the year we can vote to ensure that every public office in this country will be unequivocally Australian. This is the year we can ensure our Head of State is not the monarch of another country, but an Australian - one of us."

In public gatherings over the next two days in Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria, NSW, Western Australia, Queensland and the ACT, republicans will call on Australians to carefully consider whether they wanted to continue to have a foreigner - someone who does not live here and who has never lived among us - to be our Head of State.

Mr Turnbull told Australians at the Sydney gathering, including Liberal MPs, the Opposition Leader Mr Beazley, Democrats Leader Meg Lees and well known figures such as Andrew Robb, Maxine McKew, Leo Schofield and Jason Li, that having an Australian Head of State will also unite all Australians, regardless of who they are or where they were born.

"The republican cause unites many Australians. It is supported by Australians from all walks of life and all political parties.

"The cause is not a rejection of our enduring links to the United Kingdom. It is an affirmation of our Australian identity and our pride as Australians.

"The referendum is a test of our commitment and of our belief. We cannot afford to fail this test. We cannot carry a no-confidence motion in ourselves.

"If this referendum fails we will have said to ourselves and the world that we have so little faith in our own country and its people that no Australian, not even the best of us, is good enough to be our Head of State."

Mr Turnbull said that a few republicans who will advocate a "No" vote in the referendum because they think the proposed constitutional changes do not go far enough, were misguided.

"We believe that the measure of the worth of political change is not whether it goes far enough, but whether it is a step in the right direction.

"On any republican view, the amendments will be at least an improvement to the status quo because the Head of State will be an Australian not a foreign monarch, and the President will require the support of both sides of politics, not simply that of the Prime Minister as is the case with the Governor-General."

Mr Turnbull and republicans across the nation indicated that the key focus of the Yes campaign will be to convince Australians that the time is now right for an Australian to be our Head of State, and that this will be the last opportunity for decades to make such a change.

"On Australia Day, we should be thinking about the future, not only for ourselves, but for young Australians to whom we have a duty to ensure they inherit a strong, modern, confident and united nation, proud of its people and with enough confidence to have one of our own as its first citizen - its Head of State."

Authorised by Malcolm Turnbull, Australian Republican Movement, 60 Park Street, Sydney NSW 2000