Queen is at odds with us

John Warhurst and Greg Barns
The Australian
12 November 2002

The recent trial of Paul Burrell, the former butler of Diana, princess of Wales, is an example of why it is that the British monarchy is utterly at odds with Australian values.

The Australian way is the republican way – in which no one is above the law. Yet our head of state, the Queen, was able to call a halt to Burrell's trial for theft simply by issuing a statement that supported his story. No one even bothered to ask if the Queen's statement was true. It was just taken as gospel.
What the Burrell case also illustrates is that the issue of our head of state is not simply about dry constitutional law but very much about the values that underpin our nation.

Australians have built a vibrant and inclusive democracy since the 1850s, when the colonies first obtained some autonomy from London. At the beginning of the 21st century it is now an integral part of Australian life and culture.

And this democracy is essentially republican in its outlook – that is, it supports the values of equality of opportunity, freedom of speech and action, and the application of justice to all who live in Australia.

These values might not always have been recognised or named as republican because we are still a constitutional monarchy, but they are deeply rooted in how Australians behave and in how we see themselves, and in our reputation in the world. (Although this is not to say that Australia always lives up to these ideals – clearly, as our history shows, we do not.)

Consistent with our belief in republican values, Australians have long valued autonomy and had a desire to govern ourselves. This value was expressed first in the movement for self-government for the Australian colonies in the 1850s in place of rule from Britain, and then overwhelmingly in the movement for national unity that culminated in Federation in 1901. Throughout the 20th century we moved, cautiously at times, towards a fuller expression of this desire. We have taken one step at a time in making our national institutions more Australian.

Australians are a self-reliant people who know that "Jack is as good as his master" and self-reliance is a natural underpinning of self-government. Republicanism is the ultimate approach to self-government. Self-government fits closely with nationalism.

Australian nationalism has evolved a great deal during the past 200 years or more since European settlement. Australians know it as an entirely natural expression of their values that they control their destiny.

Republicanism stands for popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty finds its expression in self-government and in Australian citizenship.

Full participation by Australians will be reached finally by creating for ourselves an Australian president as head of state in place of a foreign monarch. Australian democracy will flower in an Australian republic. Our symbols will have been repatriated from a land far away.

Popular election of a president as Australian head of state is a direct expression of popular sovereignty.

Republican values are also inclusive and open to the community. The alternative, hereditary monarchy, carries with it considerable baggage. Australia cannot avoid being limited and restricted by that unwanted baggage.

The British monarchy is tied to the established church, the Church of England. Although we have no established church in Australia, the rules for our head of state exclude those of other faiths and other Christian denominations as well as those of no religious belief. That is just not right. It can be fixed.

Republican values are part of Australia's heritage. They are no strangers to our past. We are often referred to as a "crowned republic" because of the extent to which these values infuse our institutions and our culture.

Let's bring those values to the surface in our most important symbol, our head of state.

At the same time, republican values are modern and open. They chime in tune with 21st-century Australia. The alternative is a system of government based on an old-fashioned and paternalistic concept embedded in outdated values such as heredity – and the manipulation of the justice system, as we saw in the Burrell case.

Australians are natural republicans. But it has taken us a long time to express those values loudly and publicly to ourselves and to our world. Let's take that next step as soon as possible.

John Warhurst is chairman of the Australian Republican Movement, of which Greg Barns was chairman from 2000 to September 2002.