ARM MEDIA RELEASE - 5 June 2007

MAJOR GENERAL MIKE KEATING NEW REPUBLICAN HEAD

Major General Mike Keating has been elected Acting Chair of the Australian Republican Movement (ARM). He takes the place, until the 2007 federal election, of Ted O’Brien who has been selected to stand as the Liberal Party candidate for the seat of Brisbane.

The ARM, a non-partisan movement committed to the cause of a republic with an Australian Head of State, is extraordinarily fortunate to be able to call on a leader of such calibre, who has devoted his life to his country’s service.

Major General Michael Keating AO, Retd, retired from the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in January 2001 after 37 years service. That service concluded with service as Head, Strategic Command, Australian Defence Headquarters in 1999 and 2000 during the major ADF deployment in East Timor. His service had begun thirty years earlier with operational duty in South Vietnam, after graduating as a Lieutenant in 1967 from the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
Mike Keating was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in June 1993 in recognition of his service as Commander 3d Brigade and as an Officer in June 2000 for distinguished service to the ADF and to the Australian Army in high level command and staff appointments.

Major General Keating, first elected to the ARM national committee in 2006, sees this appointment as “an opportunity to help lead my fellow Australians to decide that we want an Australian citizen as the Head of State of this great country”.