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Friends,
in a little less than 12 months all of us will cast
the most important political vote of our lives. It will
be, as Richard Butler
said a moment ago, the most important political decision
this country will make since it voted to become one
nation, a Federation, the Commonwealth of Australia
a hundred years ago.
Now we, in the Australian Republican Movement and all
of you here tonight and the many other thousands of
Australians that worked so hard and committed so much
to this great cause over 8 years are the reason why
we are going to have that vote next year.
Friends, If we become a Republic it is because of our
imagination, our organisation, our commitment and our
hard work and I say thank you to all of you. When the
election for the Constitutional Convention was held
in 1997 the Australian Republican Movement emerged with
the largest single delegation to the Convention by no
means the majority as Bill Leek observed so eloquently
in the cartoon in the "silent auction". The Prime Minister
of course had chosen to appoint 36 out of the 152 delegates
and only 76 were elected, but by far the largest elected
group was the Australian Republican Movement. The Australian
Republican Movement model for a Republic dominated the
debate at the Convention. We came with a group that
was organised with a thought out case and was disciplined
and all of that again is due to you. This model that
emerged from the Convention enshrines the core principle
of the Australian Republican Movement platform, which
is that Australia's Head of State should be an Australian
citizen chosen by Australians and not the Monarch of
another country.
It enshrines the principle that the Australian Head
of State - the President - would be chosen in a bipartisan
fashion by a two thirds majority with a joint sitting
of both Houses of Parliament. We, in the course of the
debate and the discussions at the Convention conceded
to the proposition that were the Australian President
only able to be removed by a two thirds majority it
would make an Australian President in a political crisis,
in effect impossible to remove. So we agreed to a change
which would in effect reflect the status quo of today,
but with one refinement - an Australian President in
a model we will all vote on next year, will be able
to be removed by the Prime Minister, just as the Governor-General
can, but unlike the present dispensation, a Prime Minister
who removes a President will have to go to Parliament
to seek to have his actions ratified and if they're
not ratified he or she will have to resign. But more
importantly, more importantly, a President if removed
by a Prime Minister will not be able to be replaced
by that Prime Minister. The casual vacancy will be filled
by the Senior State Governor at the time, whoever that
may be and the permanent replacement will be again by
that bi-partisan system. So we took on board and I outline
this so that you understand the constructive and open
way in which the ARM approached this Convention, we
took on board the proposition the balance of power between
the Head of State and the Prime Minister in our system
required in the event of the two office holders being
unable to work together for the Prime Minister to prevail.
We accepted that, but we were able to ensure that no
Prime Minister would ever to be able to put his or her,
man or woman, his or her political crony - into Yarralumla.
And so what we have ensured friends, is that in this
Republic we will have in a year from now, there will
always be at least one office - the highest office,
in ceremonial terms at least - which is entirely above
party politics and that will be a signal achievement
in our constitution. Over and above the aspirations
of nationalism and national identity, we will have made
a cape for an Office that is genuinely above politics,
that is genuinely chosen on merit, that is genuinely
Australian, that is not in the gift of any political
party and for all of that we should be very proud.
Now the Convention has been held. The Convention was
a great success for us. Who would have thought 5 or
6 or 7 or 8 years ago that we would now be having a
referendum to change the Constitution to have an Australian
citizen as Head of State on a model essentially our
own and that this would be presided over by Prime Minister,
John Winston Howard - an unlikely proposition. One can
only wish that one had had the gift of prophecy 8 years
ago and had been able to take a few bets on this outcome.
The odds would have been very long indeed.
So how are we going to win the referendum? The referendum
campaign, as you know, has to be carried by a majority
of voters nationally and in a majority of States.
Now it is our view, and we are not entirely uninformed
on statistical matters of this kind, that there is a
very strong national majority and a very substantial
majority in the States of New South Wales and Victoria
and I venture again that the "yes" votes in New South
Wales could be well in excess of two thirds and it will
not be far behind that in Victoria.
So the risk that we run, it seems to me, is that we
will win a national majority, but not win 4 out of the
6 States, so it goes without saying that our campaign
has to focus very seriously and intensely on the 4 smaller
States of Australia. Queensland, Western Australia,
South Australia and Tasmania.
Now there is only one of those States, Queensland, in
which there seems to be organised political opposition
to a Republic in the form of the National Party Opposition
in that State.
In all of the other States of Australia, by and large,
the conservative party, the Liberal Party, is by and
large in favour of a Republic, in some cases overtly,
in other cases in a less coherent way. And in that context
I want to pay tribute tonight to the very courageous
efforts of a great many non-Labor politicians who stood
up for the Republic. Who stood up for the Republic in
times when it was very, very, unfashionable and when
it was identified exclusively with Paul Keating and
it was seen in many Liberal quarters as being akin to
treason.
It's a great thing tonight to have Senator Marise Payne
here - a Liberal Senator from New South Wales and former
Vice-Chair of the Australian Republican Movement and
only a few years before she was selected by the Liberal
Party to be a Senator in the Federal Parliament, I seem
to recall she was very close to being expelled from
the Liberal Party for being associated with such a dangerous
left - wing - organisation as this one.
Times change, but they don't always change in a manner
that's satisfactory for Republicans and I would simply
observe, without wanting to go through a whole honour
role of Liberal Republicans, that one of the most eloquent,
persuasive and significant Republicans in the Liberal
Party, one of these people that have had the greatest
impact in legitimising the Republican cause in the Liberal
Party and indeed within the coalition and the National
Party is Peter Collins. Peter, it's not for us tonight
to buy into the machinations of Macquarie Street. Time
will tell whether your colleagues were wise or foolhardy
but all I can say on behalf of the Australian Republican
Movement and I'm sure , on behalf of everyone here tonight
that when Australia does become a Republic - the Republic
will of course have many, many fathers and mothers but
you will be right up there at the top as one of the
great fathers of the Republic and we thank you very
much for your support.
Now, how do we win? Will we win as we won in the Convention
by organisation? This is not a business for dilettantes,
it's not a business for amateurism, we'll approach the
campaign with the same professionalism with which we
approached the last one - and we will win it.
We will be establishing and we are in the process of
establishing vote "yes" campaign committees in every
State and Territory and they will embrace and include
every group that support the "yes" vote. We're not asking
people to vote for the Australian Republican Movement
this time. We're asking them to vote "yes".
And we don't care whether they're Labor, Liberal, National
or whatever, we want people who this time are committing
to voting yes for Australia, for casting a vote of confidence
in themselves and we believe that we will be able to
develop an enormous ground swell behind this campaign.
You see, one of the things that we always said as Republicans
over the last 8 years is all the good reasons why we
should become a Republic and you've all heard that before.
But let me ask you this; what will it say to the world
if in November 1999 when the referendum is held. What
will it say to the world about us and our belief in
ourselves and our place in our country and our commitment
to our future as a nation if we sign up for another
100 years of the British Monarchy?
What will it say if we are not prepared to believe in
ourselves? Friends, we will have a ballot paper which
will be headed Constitution Amendment Republic Bill
or whatever, Australian Head of State Bill 1999 and
there will be only one question. It won't have anything
to do with direct election or Dick McGarvey or this
or that there'll be one question. Do you approve the
proposed law - yes or no - that's it. The debate about
the model is over. There's only one chance now. For
those who feel that the model that is being proposed
does not go far enough, I simply say this. The test
for the worth of political change is not whether it
has gone far enough but whether it is going in the right
direction.
Those who say we won't vote for the Republic until it
solves every Constitutional problem will be living under
a Monarchy forever. To those Conservatives who don't
want to vote for a republic - who feel that it's an
unsatisfactory change - they should stick to the Monarchy.
I simply say this to them:-
The Monarchy may mean a lot to you, but what will we
be saying to the world? What will we be saying to our
children? What will the world think - ill informed or
not -if in 1999 - we as a Nation positively decide that
no Australian is good enough to be our Head of State
- because that's the test. You see until the referendum
question was put we could have explained the Monarchy
by saying, we'll you know it's an anachronistic part
of our Constitution but there it is. We've never got
around to changing it, we could have explained it away
like that. But now the question is there. We cannot
shirk our responsibilities and the question is. Do we
believe in ourselves? Do we believe in Australia? Do
we believe that an Australian is good enough to hold
the highest Constitutional Office in this country?
Friends, I have no doubt that Australians will do that.
But I also have no doubt that the only way we will win
is by commitment, professionalism, organisation, loyalty
and the generous support of our supporters and friends
- many of whom are here tonight.
So, I want in closing, before I propose a toast to the
republic to say two things:-
Firstly, thank you - all of you who have done so much.
Here tonight are so many great republicans. So many
of you were at the Constitutional Convention, so many
of you have been part of this organisation for its entire
life and without you we would not be here. Thank you,
thank you again.
But also, I would say to you we have not yet got to
the finishing tape. It's in sight, but we have to keep
going and when we get there, then we will have the dinner
to end all dinners.
This is the last republican dinner under the Monarchy.
Friends, an Australian Republic!
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