ARM MEDIA RELEASE - 11 March 2006

Business as usual for Canberra's republicans

Republicans in the ACT will not be protesting about the visit of Australia's foreign Head of State during the monarch's short stay in Canberra this week. Like most Canberrans, it will be business as usual.

Convenor of the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) in the ACT, Terry Fewtrell, pointed out that "The principal reason for the Queen's visit is to open the Commonwealth Games and as republicans we support Australia remaining as a member of the Commonwealth - after all most of the countries in the Commonwealth are republics."

"To the extent that the Queen may perform some functions as Australia's Head of State during her visit, we believe that the vast majority of Canberrans recognise that such an arrangement is archaic and needs change. They said so at the referendum in 1999."

"We bear no ill will towards Queen Elizabeth," said Mr Fewtrell, "but we think it is a nonsense that a British monarch can truly express and represent Australian values and interests in this day and age. Until our Head of State is one of us, we are diminished as a nation and a people."