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I
am very sorry I had to cancel being with you tonight.
Thanks to Malcolm Turnbull, it's been possible
to send you this message. It must be brief, so
I'll get straight to the point.
We must not lose the referendum next year.
Truly, it is the choice of the century - the most
important choice since that of the last, when
Australians wrote our constitution and, the defining
choice for Australians of the next.
I have worked around the world for the past 30
years in service of our country - postings to
8 embassises, official visits to some 70 countries,
and attendance at 20 sessions of the general assembly
of the United Nations. I now work for the Security
Council of the United Nations.
This has meant that I've experienced the view
held of Australia and Australians in all those
places.
People around the world have a good opinion of
us. They know we are special, they know of our
achievements and that those achievements have
far exceeded what would normally be expected of
a relatively small population.
But, I'm sorry to say there is a confusion about
exactly who we are and, worse, who we really belong
to. It is beyond doubt that this confusion rests
on the fact that our head of state is also the
head of state of the United Kingdom. This is a
sad and wrong situation, especially when one considers
that we are a self-determined people and have
been for a long time.
The Australian system of government is in fact
one of the oldest, continuous, unbroken democratic
systems in the world. Many Australians don't recognise
this fact. When they think of countries whose
cultural history is far longer than ours - France,
Germany, Italy for example - thay assume that
the form of government, of democracy in those
countries, is as ancient as their culture. It
isn't.
Australian democracy has been established for
considerably longer than the contemporary form
of government in those countries.
Furthermore, more than 100 countries have been
established since the beginning of the great movement
of decolonization, at the end of the second world
war. But the oldest of those, India, is only 50
years old. To these must also be added the countries
liberated by the end of the cold war, now almost
10 years ago.
Virtually all of these new countries are republics.
Of the 185 member states of the united nations,
the overwhelming proportion of them are democracies
and republics.
Today, there is a great movement under way towards
democracy around the world. This is because people
know that nothing is more basic to what they need,
to what they want and, to what thay hold to be
good and valuable, than that they are able to
organize themselves democratically. They know
this is the best way to ensure their freedom,
their welfare, their peace and security and their
identity.
The fact is we Australians have these fundamental
concerns well behind us but, there does remain
the confusion, indeed, the non-sense of our having
a head of state who, of all the things he or she
could be, being an Australian is not one of them!
This must be put to rights.
During the referendum campaign and debate, clearly,
a number of anxieties will be expressed. Anxiety
about change as such, the gut conservative concern.
Anxiety about a sense of betraying the past and
our forebears, many of whom died for Australia.
Anxiety about betraying the future, based on the
deeply felt but entirely false idea that the presence
of an external monarchy within our political culture
will serve to preserve democracy and fairness
in Australia and restrain what, otherwise, might
be Australian excesses.
These concerns must be addressed, particularly
the last of those I mentioned, which is very wrong
and self-depreciating.
The political and legal system we Australians
have built is based in good measure, on sources
in the British Isles. But it was built and made
to work by us, in our own way. The British are
the first to agree to this.
The election of an Australian head of state, in
an Australian republic would lose us nothing.
We would preserve the good from our past and retain
all the benefits it has brought us, such as membership
of the Commonwealth of Nations, most members of
which are republics.
To those who attach particular value to our inheritance
from what is now the United Kingdom, I believe
a point of real substance can be made.
The fact that the United Kingdom and Australian
head of state is currently the same person, even
though in different legal personality, is a source
of ambiguity and potential conflict of interest.
I have repeatedly experienced this in my work.
There is no doubt that the removal of this source
of confusion will improve our relationship with
the United Kingdom by neutralizing those who seek
to play it against us and our interests. Instead,
there would be an enhanced mutual respect between
two independent countries, one of which is ever
more deeply identifying itself with Europe, not
with its offspring of the past.
We must seize the moment of choice next year.
We must not fight amongst ourselves about it.
It is a choice to shape our future as a whole
country and people based on who we know we are
and what we will become, incorporating as we do,
original Australians and peoples from the four
corners of the earth who have come to live in
our land and enrich it.
To choose to be a republic will absorb our history
in a positive way and ensure that we do not remain
its prisoner.
By this action, once again, we will have led the
world in the same way we did at the beginning
of the 20th century when we forged our original
constitution. Others, for example in Canada and
New Zealand, will be watching. But, beyond those
good friends, a signal will be sent far and wide,
that Australians have made their choice for the
21st century, a dynamic choice, whose time has
come.
Thank
you.
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