You can be part of history

by Mark Day
The Daily Telegraph
21 November 2001

Who wants to strut their stuff alongside the big names of Australia's vice regal, legal and political worlds, and maybe make the kind of difference you will be able to brag to your grandchildren about?

It's all yours – for a fee – if you are quick off the mark.

Today is the last day for registrations for public delegates to the People's Conference at Corowa, a gabfest on December 1 and 2, sponsored by the Centenary of Federation and the Corowa council aimed at outlining the processes required to settle the question of an Australian head of state.

This is not a pro-republic or pro-monarchy conference.

In this regard, it is determinedly neutral, but it draws on history in its search for a circuit breaker in the debate over Australia's future constitutional arrangements, stalled since the failed November 1999 referendum.

In 1893 the political momentum behind moves to establish an Australian Federation were similarly stalled.

The early push had dissipated amid disagreement between various colonial politicians, and it looked as if the separatism of the colonies would continue.

Nowhere was this more keenly felt than along the Murray River, the border between the two largest colonies, NSW and Victoria. Taxes and levies were charged for trade across the river, neighbours and families were branded as smugglers if they so much as baked a cake for someone on the other side, and NSW farmers were forced to pay extra costs for transport of their produce to Sydney, although Melbourne port was half the distance away.

Rail gauges also changed at the Murray, making the exchange of goods more difficult, but taxes easier to collect.

In 1893 the people of Corowa and district put on a conference to try to kick start the Federation process. Unannounced, Dr John Quick, a Victorian MP, put forward a motion which called on each of the colonial parliaments to pass an Act providing for the election of representatives to a constitutional convention to consider and adopt a Bill for a federal constitution, to be put before the people by referendum.

Quick therefore set in place a process for decision making, and the people ultimately made the decision.

In 1999 the referendum decision was 55-45 per cent against an Australian republic with a head of state appointed by a two-thirds majority of both houses of parliament in a joint sitting.

Recent polling shows 70 per cent of Australians want an Australian head of state, but 40 per cent were not satisfied with the 1999 package.

The Corowa conference will consider five different proposals for a process framework. There will be no debate about whether or not Australia should be a republic, or the form that republic should take.

This is all about the people taking the initiative once again by outlining to our political leaders the steps we want to take towards the ultimate resolution of the issue.

About 100 of the maximum 450 delegates have been invited to attend.

They include former governor-general Sir Zelman Cowan, who is the conference patron, former Victorian governor Richard McGarvie, former chief justice of the High Court, Sir Gerard Brennan, and past and present political luminaries such as Malcolm Fraser, Tim Fischer, Shane Stone, Greg Sword, and Kerry Chikarovski. Treasurer Peter Costello's brother Tim will be there, too.

Organisers can accept another 50 public delegates, with registrations closing at 5pm today.

The cost of the weekend is $195, and you will be up for your own transport and accommodation. All the details and registration forms are on the website www.corowaconference.com.au

There are no prizes in this. You will not collect any fees or plaques of honour (although there will be a group photograph taken on Sunday morning which will prove to the grandkids that you were there).

But as a chance to take part in a gathering which may come to be seen by historians as a critical turning point in the growth of our nation – like Corowa 108 years ago – it is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.