The Preambles Project

6 Preambles by 6 Australian Authors for the Queen's Birthday

In 2003 the Australian Republican Movement sponsored an initiative from six major Australian authors to create a new preamble to the Australian Constitution. The writers, James Bradley, Peter Carey, Delia Falconer, Richard Flanagan, Dorothy Porter and Leah Purcell each devised their own personal vision for a new preamble that speaks of their vision of the land, the nation and the people.

The ARM remains a broadly based organisation that is solely focussed on the need for an Australian Head of State. However there is a growing recognition that building the republic is an act of imagination and inspiration, as much as it is about dry constitutional technicalities. A preamble seeks to give expression to the unifying purpose of the document it precedes. Constitutionally it must give voice to the values and aspirations of the Australian people as a whole, as it is these values and aspirations which are given expression through the Constitution of our nation.