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It
is the Government's view that Australia's Head of State
should be an Australian - that Australia should become
a republic by the year 2001. Tonight I shall describe
the means by which we believe this ought to be done.
Honourable members will recall that to fulfil an undertaking
given during the last election campaign, on April 28
1993 the Government established a Republic Advisory
Committee to prepare an options paper which would describe
the minimum constitutional changes necessary to create
a federal republic of Australia.
The Republic Advisory Committee was chaired by Mr Malcolm
Turnbull and comprised Dr Glyn Davis, Miss Namoi Dougall,
the Hon Nick Greiner, Dr John Hirst, Ms Mary Kostakidis,
Miss Lois O'Donoghue, the Hon Susan Ryan and Professor
George Winterton.
I take this opportunity to thank them. They consulted
widely throughout Australia, carried out their work
with dedication and energy and delivered to the Government
and to posterity a most valuable document.
In the eighteen months which have passed since the release
of the Report, the idea of an Australian republic has
come to occupy a central place in our national political
debate: not only in this Parliament but within the political
parties, in major representative and community bodies,
in schools and universities, communities at large and,
I daresay, around countless Australian dinner tables.
In the process many Australians have come to favour
a Republic. Just as many, perhaps, now believe it is
inevitable.
Many may regret the prospect of change and be unsure
about the means by which it can be achieved, but recognise
that sooner or later we must have an Australian as our
Head of State. That one small step would make Australia
a republic.
Governments can wait for opinion to force their hand,
or they can lead. They can wait for the world to change
and respond as necessity demands, or they can see the
way the world is going and point the way.
We are approaching the 21st century and the centenary
of our nationhood. As never before we are making our
own way in our region and the world. For us the world
is going - and we are going - in a way which makes our
having the British monarch as our Head of State increasingly
anomalous.
The fact is that if the plans for our nationhood were
being drawn up now, by this generation of Australians
and not those of a century ago, it is beyond question
that we would make our Head of State an Australian.
Any suggestion that the British monarch should fill
the role would not be entertained. This is not because
our generation lacks respect for the British monarchy,
or the British people, or our British heritage, or the
British institutions we have made our own, or our long
friendship with the British in peace and war. On the
contrary, Australians everywhere respect them, as they
respect The Queen. But they are not Australian. It is
so obvious, that if we were just now drawing up our
constitution, we probably would not even feel the need
to say that the Australian Head of State will be Australian
- it would go without saying.
That it does not go without saying today is an accident
of history. We are attached to Great Britain by long
threads of kinship and affection which, to a considerable
extent, are embodied in the warmth of our regard for
Queen Elizabeth. Many Australians may well feel that
to substitute an Australian for the monarchy constitutes
in some way a rejection of these ties. I think all of
us can understand these feelings.
But the creation of an Australian republic is not an
act of rejection. It is one of recognition: in making
the change we will recognise that our deepest respect
is for our Australian heritage, our deepest affection
is for Australia, and our deepest responsibility is
to Australia's future.
Nothing in the creation of an Australian republic will
alter the facts of our heritage and our affections.
Indeed our relationship with Britain may well become
the more thoroughly "modern relationship" which the
British Prime Minister expressed a desire for two years
ago. The development of a mature and modern relationship
will certainly not be inhibited by recognition of the
truth. We are friends with separate destinies to carve
out in the world. We are not as we once were, in a parent-child
relationship.
The people of modern Australia are drawn from virtually
every country in the world. It is no reflection on the
loyalty of a great many of them to say that the British
monarchy is a remote and inadequate symbol of their
affections for Australia. And we can be equally sure
that in the 21st century the British monarchy will become
even more remote from even more Australians.
Australia occupies a unique place in the world and makes
a unique contribution to it. Our destiny is in no-one
else's hands but our own: we alone bear the responsibility
for deciding what the nature of our government and society
will be, what advantage we will take of our human and
material resources, what kind of place our children
will inherit.
It is not a radical undertaking that we propose.
In proposing that our Head of State should be an Australian
we are proposing nothing more than the obvious. Our
Head of State should embody and represent Australia's
values and traditions, Australia's experience and aspirations.
We need not apologise for the nationalism in these sentiments,
but in truth they contain as much commonsense as patriotism.
This is a point worth making: this republican initiative
is not an exercise in jingoism; it is not accompanied
by the beat of drums - or chests. It asserts nothing
more than our unique identity. It expresses nothing
more than our desire to have a Head of State who is
truly one of us. It changes nothing more than what is
required to make clear and unambiguous our independence
and responsibility for our own affairs.
It is a small step, but a highly significant one. The
government believes that at this stage of our history
it is a logical and essential one. And it can reflect
that stage in our history. An Australian Head of State
can embody our modern aspirations - our cultural diversity,
our evolving partnerships with Asia and the Pacific,
our quest for reconciliation with Aboriginal Australians,
our ambition to create a society in which women have
equal opportunity, equal representation and equal rights.
In this decade we have a chance which few other countries
have; in declaring ourselves for an Australian republic,
we can give expression to both our best traditions and
our current sensibilities and ambitions.
At present, under the Constitution, Australia's Head
of State is The Queen and her "heirs and successors
in the sovereignty of the United Kingdom". Anyone reading
the Australian Constitution who is unfamiliar with the
practical realities of Australian government would assume
that the role of the monarch was central.
In fact, the involvement of the British monarch in Australia's
affairs is now very limited. The Queen's role as Head
of State is in most respects carried out by the Governor-General.
Of the responsibilities The Queen retains, the most
notable is her appointment of the Governor-General which,
by convention, she does on the advice of the Prime Minister.
We are not quite alone among the countries of the world
in having as our Head of State someone who is not one
of our own citizens, but we are in a very small minority
- and a majority of the countries in the Commonwealth
of Nations are republics with their own Head of State.
Of the 185 members of the United Nations, only 15 do
not have their own Heads of State - and 14 of those
15 are former British Dominions.
The Queen of Australia is also Queen of the United Kingdom
and 14 other countries in the United Nations.
Notwithstanding that The Queen is Australia's Head of
State and fulfils that duty conscientiously, when she
travels overseas she represents only the United Kingdom.
Her visits abroad often tend to promote British trade
and British interests - they do not promote Australia's
trade and interests.
This is, of course, right and proper for the Head of
State of the United Kingdom. But it is not right for
Australia. The right Head of State for Australia is
one of us, embodying the things for which we stand,
reminding us of those things at home and representing
them abroad. We number among those things fairness,
tolerance and love of this country. It is a role only
an Australian can fill.
Each and every Australian should be able to aspire to
be our Head of State. Every Australian should know that
the office will always be filled by a citizen of high
standing who has made an outstanding contribution to
Australia and who, in making it, has enlarged our view
of what it is to be Australian.
In these and other ways, the creation of an Australian
republic can actually deliver a heightened sense of
unity, it can enliven our national spirit and, in our
own minds and those of our neighbours, answer beyond
doubt the perennial question of Australian identity
- the question of who we are and what we stand for.
The answer is not what having a foreign Head of State
suggests. We are not a political or cultural appendage
to another country's past. We are simply and unambiguously
Australian.
If only by a small degree an Australian republic fulfilled
these ideals it would be worth it.
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