Nothing But a Vaudeville Fantasy
If there was ever an idea more irrelevant to the pressing needs of Australia - the housing crisis, global warming, income inequality, public health, the child abuse epidemic, ending our participation in a foreign carnage - it must surely be The Republic. I capitalise the term deliberately, given the way its proponents solemnise it as a national priority, says Andrew West.
[Ed: Mr. West, to say that the Australian government and people can't spare any time for thinking about a republic because there are more immediate issues is a non sequitur. It is reminiscent of that famous insult of US President Lyndon Johnson: that he couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. Most people can do several things at once. Similarly, the government and people can simultaneously work on many problems. The monarchy may not be our biggest or our most immediate problem, but it is most definitely one of our problems. It is a symbol of aristocratic privilege lingering too long in an otherwise democratic nation. And we can replace it by an Australian President at the same time as we address many other national and global problems.]
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