Let's Have One of Us - A Mate for Head of State

Speech by John Bell AM at The Sydney Institute launch of A Mate for Head of State
Museum of Sydney, Wednesday 18 January 2006

For as long as I can remember Australian writers and artists have been struggling to find an "Australian Identity".

From time to time individual voices have sounded out and the elusive "identity" seemed within grasp: the bush ballads of Banjo Patterson, the larrikin stirring of Henry Lawson, the grasp of country expressed by Mary Gilmore, Miles Franklin, Judith Wright; the searing images of Sid Nolan and Arthur Boyd; the outrageous laughter of Roy Rene and Barry Humphries - all of these are recognisable components of what we might dub "the Australian character" - things that are uniquely ours, that no other country can emulate or take away from us.

Republican sentiments are nothing new in Australia: they have been brewing a long time. One of our favourite sons, Henry Lawson, was stirring the possum way back in 1900.

"Sons of the South, awake, arise;
Sons of the South, choose true:
The old dead tree or the young tree green -
The land belongs to the lord and queen
Or the land that belongs to you."

Yet the Australian "Identity" is always in a state of flux, especially as newcomers from various parts of Asia, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere add new strands to the rich tapestry of our nation.

Despite a few extremists on the ratbag right and the moronic thuggery on display in recent month in South Sydney, the policy of multiculturalism in Australia has been and continues to be a triumph, a shining example to the rest of the world.

Anybody who can remember the boring, narrow-minded and monochromatic Australia of the 1950s will rejoice at the burgeoning of multicultural Australia with its colourful mix of languages, cuisine, cultural festivities, music, dance and visual arts. In sport European athletes have brought new dimensions of skill to this country and academically Asian students have kept raising the bar - gaining top places and demonstrating hard work, focus and determination.

Multiculturalism has made us truly cosmopolitan, a more interesting, vibrant, intelligent and competitive society, no longer a colonial backwater.

We are a nation of many colours, creeds and cultural practices.

Past generations of Australians had a nostalgia for the British Empire and its royal family. That was understandable in that so many of us were descended from British emigrants. We felt an affinity with the British based on our comradeship in two world wars, the poems we learned at schools and the relentless propaganda of the Women's Weekly.

New generations of Anglo-Australians feel no such affinity or nostalgia. To them, as to young Australians from Asian, European or Middle Eastern backgrounds, Britain is a cold little island a long way away and its royals no more than visitors who drop in occasionally to cut a ribbon or watch a horse race. Britain, its way of life, its royal family, are of little interest to the great majority of Australians. For myself, being one of that generation who learned Keats and Shelley at school and grew up with the forelock-tugging cringe of the Women's Weekly, I remain something of an anglophile with a degree of respect for a couple of royals who do their job with dignity and integrity.

But that doesn't mean I want them to "reign over us" any more than I want King Juan Carlos or Emperor Akahito as my head of state, much as I love Spain and Japan.

We are a nation of many colours, creeds and practices. What can unite us?

We shall never achieve a uniqueness, a sense of self, until our head of state, the person recognised internationally as our chief representatives, is one of us. The rest of the world must continue to view Australia as a colonial outpost of Great Britain as long as our head of state is the Queen of England who lives twelve thousand miles away. She can dismiss our Governor-General at any time; she has the power to disallow our legislation; we are sworn to be her subjects.

How much better to have a head of state who is an Australian citizen, who lives among us, knows and understands us on a day-to-day basis rather than through the sanitised shop-window impression of the occasional whirlwind royal tour.

How much better to have a head of state who wants to see Australian win The Ashes and The World Cup, who wants to put Australia's economic interests ahead of those of the EU. Let's have one of us - a Mate for Head of State.

The USA was the dominant world force for most of the twentieth century, its popular culture, from Hollywood to Rock-n-Roll, all pervasive. This was possible only when America ceased being a colony and became a nation. The trigger of its greatness was Independence.

The cost of America's nationhood was bloody rebellion and civil war. Australia, happily, need not go down the same path. We can part from the Mother Country on amicable terms and still remain a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

A 2004 Newspoll revealed that 64% of Australians want an Australian head of state, as opposed to 30% who do not.

Perhaps a Newspoll conducted in 1776 would have revealed a similar split among the American colonists regarding Independence. But not too many Americans these days wish to be subject to the House of Windsor. They moved on - and so should we.

All it takes is the courage to let go of the apron-strings. Until we do, and learn to stand on out own two feet, we'll never know what it really feels like to be Australian.