A difficult road is still worth taking

The Age : April 24, 2008

JOHN Roskam's bleak dampener on the republic (Opinion, 23/4) deserves some response. Firstly, since 1994 more Australians have supported an Australian republic than support our current constitutional monarchy. Further, if the Government got behind the republican push, this support would become overwhelming (as we witnessed recently with the large majority support for the indigenous apology).

The strategy for the republic did not emerge at the 2020 Summit as claimed by Roskam. It has been Australian Republican Movement policy since 2003 and was also endorsed by the Australian Senate in its 2004 report, The Road to a Republic. This strategy hands ownership of the model of an Australian republic to the Australian people through a two-stage plebiscite process followed by a referendum. Australians firstly would face an indicative plebiscite on whether they would prefer an Australian republic or monarchy, and then a further plebiscite on which model they preferred.

Despite Roskam's claims otherwise, Australians would have complete choice in their preferred model and ultimately that choice would have to be endorsed by a majority of voters and a majority of states at a referendum: no easy task.

We all agree that Australia is a good place to live, John, but it would be even better if we had our own constitutional arrangements. Alternatively we can continue to have a system of government where the Queen of Great Britain, neither an Australian citizen nor resident, remains at the apex of our political system. This is hardly the stuff of a mature, self-confident nation and people.

The road to a republic will be difficult and complex but how great will it be when we get there: our nation, our continent, our government.

Peter van Vliet

Australian Republican Movement National Committee

Carnegie