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Ladies
and Gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity to
speak to you today, I hope we have an enjoyable
and illuminating discussion.
It was Victor Hugo who once said that there is
nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has
come. And the idea of a Republic for Australia
has certainly arrived. But has its time come?
Right at this very moment as I speak to you, about
10 million of our fellow Australians have expressed
the view that Australia should become a republic
of one sort or another.
There's hardly been an opinion poll or a survey
in the past 5 years which hasn't revealed a strong
interest in moving towards a republic and the
latest one, published about a month ago, which
gives us the figure of 10 million, continues this
trend.
Included in those millions of Australians are
some of our very brightest minds. Some of our
top sportspeople, administrators, politicians
and ordinary Australians from all walks of life.
Of course these surveys also reveal large numbers
of Australians wanting to keep our ties with the
Queen and with Britain and another large group
which hasn't made up its mind, or which doesn't
care. And, too, these groups contain some highly
intelligent and able people, some of whom are
represented here today.
The majority of Australians favour becoming a
Republic and in the society we live in it is usual
that the majority will eventually get its way,
and I believe Australia will become a Republic
at some day in the future.
I'm delighted to say that my views are shared
by former Prime Ministers Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke
and Keating and the present Prime Minister, Mr
Howard, as well.
To a great many Australians the question is not
so much WILL we become a republic but when. To
some of us the question of the form of the Republic
is also important.
I really do consider it a privilege that God has
put me here at this age, in this place and at
this time when I can contribute to the form of
that coming Republic which will affect the lives
of millions of Australians to come in the decades
and centuries ahead.
Now I know that not everybody in this room agrees
that the Republic is a forgone conclusion or that
it will come about at all, so before addressing
the question of what it might look like, I should
try to explain why I believe so many Australians
have come to share the same view as I have.
To be a republican is not to be more patriotic
about Australia or to be less loyal to the Queen.
Every republican I know has only the highest regard
for Her Majesty and the wealth of tradition and
history she represents.
Republicans still join the Her Majesty's armed
forces, they take commissions, enter Her parliament
and, dare I say it, serve at Government House.
Similarly, being a monarchist does not, from my
experience, make someone any less patriotic than
anyone else. The question is one of Australia
becoming more Australian.
Republicans are not anti-anyone or any other country.
We are simply pro-Australian. So let's have a
look at why so very many Australians believe it's
time to cut the apron strings to Mother England
and stand alone in the world.
In the first place, and perhaps most obviously,
it's because our links with the British people,
their institutions and the monarchy have been
shrinking over many years. In 1950 for example,
we exported 40 per cent of everything we made
to Britain. By 1990 we were sending just 4 per
cent. In 1947 almost all our foreign born residents
had come from England. In 1991 less than a third
of our incoming migrants had.
At the same time as this was happening the very
face of Australia was changing as we dumped the
White Australia Policy and embraced multiculturalism,
substituting Pizza Pies for Pork Pies and Salami
and Lasagne for bangers and mash.
During this time too, England had gone off and
joined the European Union, showing that they too
regarded their links of the past to Australia
as having served their purpose.
Today, more than 40 percent of Australians are
first or second generation migrants and have no
links whatsoever with a monarchy based 12,000
kilometres away in England. And that percentage
is not going to go down!
Some of our recent settlers have actually left
nations which have suffered a history of conflict
against Britain. The tolerance for which Australia
is famous and which goes to attract these people
to our shores is the same tolerance that respects
their beliefs and tries to accommodate their feelings.
By way of an aside it is that same tolerance that
allows you and me to engage in polite debate about
our future without the fear of bloodshed or violence.
A second reason so many Australians think it's
time for a change is that they feel unhappy and
dissatisfied that their children or they themselves
can never aspire to being the paramount leader
of the country they love.
If they work hard enough, are clever enough, sacrifice
enough and get the right lucky breaks, why can't
they, or one of their kids, become President of
Australia? They see the Americans do it and want
to know why they can't themselves.
Young people are particularly unhappy with this
situation. The vast majority of young people simply
do not accept that Australia is incapable of producing
its own president. Our younger generation won't
be put down in their claim for equality. We've
brought them up that way and we can't really complain
when they put us to the test.
They do not accept that a modern, industrialised
and independent nation such as Australia cannot
stand alone in the world. Like all younger generations
throughout history they ask why they are tied
to tradition. And for one of the few times in
history the reasons given are too easily challenged.
The monarchy was vital in linking Australia to
Europe as we developed but a lot of people believe
we can look after ourselves now. Young Australians
want to see Australia make a positive act of self
determination.
In past generations the youngsters of the time
have had this same need satisfied by the machinations
of war. But for today's Australians under the
age of 30 they are still waiting for the chance
to stand up and tell the world who they are.
Their numbers are not going to decline either
and I can tell you as the father of three children
of teenage or post-teenage age, they are not satisfied
with an argument that says it's a good thing just
because been there a long time.
Another reason Australians are ready for change
is because our system of Government is based on
continual change and advancement and most people
have learnt from experience that there is nothing
to fear from taking new directions.
Last year the federal Parliament passed almost
5,000 pages of new legislation, this, 97 years
after federation. If you subscribe to the argument
that we should have the rules well and truly in
place after 97 years or we're doing it wrong,
then you are ignoring the dynamism of Australian
society and its continuous evolution.
Even at the time of Federation our founding fathers
understood that a young nation would continue
to grow and develop and so they wove into the
constitution a mechanism by which changes could
be made.
They also left enough unsaid about our system
of Government and our relationship with the monarch
to accommodate the dozens of changes which have
been made over the years, the results of which
today we take for granted.
The frequently quoted American, Thomas Jefferson,
who helped frame the American Republic and its
constitution recognised the need for change. He
would have been proud of us Australians. He believed
that the earth belongs to the living, not the
dead, and that there should be constitutional
change every 30 years or so to accommodate the
views of each succeeding generation.
As far as Australia's relationship with the monarch
is concerned we've done much better than a change
every 30 years. Starting with Federation in 1901
it was as early as 1919 that our then Prime Minister,
Billy Hughes, demanded that Australia be allowed
to choose its own Governor-General and in 1931
the first one we'd chosen ourselves, who happened
to be an Australian, was appointed.
In that same year the Statute of Westminster
redefined Australia's role in respect of Britain
and the monarchy and less than 20 years later,
in 1948, we proclaimed our citizens to be Australians
and no longer British Subjects. We'd had much
change in a short time. But there was more to
come.
Further advances were made in 1953 when we adopted
the Queen as Queen of Australia and in 1971 when
we sent our Governor-General abroad for the first
time as our constitutional Head of State. There
was more.
In 1986 the Australia Acts were passed
both here and in England, bringing the States
and the Commonwealth into line as far as recognising
the Queen went.
It can be seen that our relationship with the
monarchy has followed an evolutionary journey
and responded to continual change since day one.
Why should this suddenly stop now? It's not likely
to stop, ever!
Today we've reached a point in our history at
which the majority of Australia believes there
is nowhere further along that particular track
to go. Let me pause here and look back at these
changes and point out a very interesting lesson
they've left us with.
It's the 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' lesson.
Do you know what some Australians said in 1930
when the Scullin Labor Government nominated an
Australian to be Governor-General?
They said "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".
The Conservative leader of the day labelled the
move towards an Australian Governor-General as
a "profound mistake" and said, quote "Any extension
of this line of policy is fraught with dangers",
unquote. If we'd heeded their warnings then Australia
would never have had an Australian as Governor-General.
Then, in weighing up the question of Australians
becoming citizens of Australia, some conservatives
in 1948 said " This is a black day for Australia".
"Future history", they said, will record this
as a day of disaster".
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
If we'd heeded their warnings, we would still
be subjects of Britain. And of course a hundred
years ago if we'd listened to the prophets of
doom and decided that federation was too risky,
we'd still be six separate colonies and the Commonwealth
of Australia would never have existed.
So can we take seriously the reaction of some
of our fellow Australians today when they say
we should avoid becoming a Republic because it
ain't broken, so why fix it? If we heed their
warnings we'll remain a monarchy even after Britain
itself becomes republic!
But this point does bring us to another reason
so many Australians want to see a Republic, and
it's a very telling one. It's because things are
in fact broken and they do demand fixing!
First at home. In Australia today the majority
of the people want change. And in a democracy
of even the loosest definition, the majority will
get its way. Whether they are right or wrong they
win! While that majority is not in control, as
is the case in Australia today, the system needs
fixing.
And Abroad.
Can we really say there isn't something wrong
and in need of fixing when the most senior diplomat
our country has produced in the past 40 years
has come out in public and said that our failure
to be seen as independent diminishes to some extent
Australia's sovereignty as a nation.
Former head of the Foreign Affairs Department
and seasoned diplomat, Richard Woolcott, is on
record as saying the following:
"All
my experience over 40 years representing Australia
in Africa, in Europe, at the United Nations
and in the region in which we are located and
increasingly engaged, East Asia, has convinced
me - has left me in no doubt at all - that Australia's
national identity, its international standing
and its wider political and economic ties can
only be advanced by the earliest move now to
an Australian republic with our own Head of
State".
Mr Woolcott said that while the Republic/Monarchy
debate was not an issue that was raised in day-to-day
bilateral relations, quote: "Whenever the matter
did come up in conversation, prominent Indonesians,
Filipinos, Malaysians and Singaporeans found it
curious and confusing that, even in a formal sense,
our head of state lived in another country, on
the other side of the world of which she was also
head of state", unquote.
There are, of course, many other reasons Australians
want us to become a Republic. It's a very difficult
decision to make and one which can only be taken
at a personal level with some degree of courage
and risk.
Some Australians do not like the anachronism of
'borrowing' another country's monarch. Others
believe that the 'old ' Australia in which we
would line up 10 deep on the roadway to catch
a glimpse of royalty driving by no longer exists.
Some saw the irony of US President Bill Clinton
raising his glass to the Queen of England during
his recent visit here. Others do not feel able
to participate fully in Australian citizenship
because of what they see as an English shadow
over their community. Some just want to know who
will open the Olympic Games. There are many more
reasons. Some are valid. Some are less so.
But before winding up, I said I'd look at the
kind of republic we are set to become. Like most
of the people who don't want to change at all,
I believe there's a great deal of good in our
present system. It's not so much that it is a
system that needs change as much as it is a system
that is incomplete.
The Australian Republican Movement proposes that
we keep all the very best aspects of Australia's
constitutional arrangements and change only those
necessary to elevate one of us to be our highest
officeholder.
Under the ARM's proposal, there would be only
two changes made to the entire Australian political
and constitutional system. Just two changes.
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One,
we would install an Australian as President
instead of continuing with a Governor-General;
and
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Two,
that President would have all the same powers
of the Governor-General except that he or
she would represent the people of Australia,
not a monarch.
Now
it's important to identify exactly what we mean
when we say one of us. I read that someone once
said that by being the Queen of Australia, the
present monarch is one of us. But what we mean
by one of us is, at the very least, someone who
lives with us.
Someone who has grown up with us, someone who
is making their life with us, someone who celebrates
our victories with us and commiserates as one
of us when we lose.
We want as our leader someone who understands
us and whose fortunes are tied to our fortunes.
Someone who IS one of us. And one term at Timbertop
is not enough! In short, we want a resident for
President.
And In my view I think we should show a little
foresight and compassion and try to make the change
sooner rather than later, preferably during the
reign of Elizabeth II.
I say this because I don't believe the ascent
of Prince Charles to the throne is going to be
all that smooth in his home country, and if Australia
were to cut its ties with the crown shortly after
he takes over, it would send all the wrong messages
to the already hypercritical British, possibly
contributing to making his reign a misery.
Remember, we republicans have nothing against
the monarch. We don't believe it's the monarchy's
fault that Australia has developed to the point
it has. We certainly have no disrespect for the
present Queen or the Royal Family.
Republicans, at least those lined up with the
Australian Republican Movement, simply want to
see an Australian as our head of state. No hidden
agendas. No large scale changes to our way of
life.
Just the completion of a remarkable story of courage,
survival, growth and prosperity in a dry and dangerous
continent thousands of miles from the cultural
and political supports of the rest of the world.
The Australian story isn't finished being written
yet and even after we've become a Republic it
will keep on changing as we change, as our children
change and as their children change.
Long live the Queen, but long live also the republic
of Australia.
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