ARM Media Statement - 17 August 1999

Republicans call for the real Bill Hayden to stand up in the No referendum case

The Australian Republican Movement today called on former Governor General, Bill Hayden, to clarify why he really wants King Charles III and not an Australian President to be the nation's next Head of State.

Mr Hayden, who will tomorrow join the No side campaigning against an Australian President replacing the British monarch as Australia's Head of State, has claimed he is opposing any change because he only supports direct election.

Despite the fact that many republicans supporting direct election are constructively asking Australians to vote YES as the next step in the nation's progress to ensure an Australian becomes Head of State, Mr Hayden is still advocating a No vote. And his real position is very unclear.

Today he says he is against the republic because he is a strong supporter of direct election. But recently, he said a direct election system would create friction and was undesirable. In his very own autobiography, Mr Hayden wrote:

"... a presidential system based on a national election to the office of head of state will result in more not less friction than our system of political government. It is reasonable to anticipate that this would happen more frequently in a presidential system, especially where a strong national campaign was successfully mobilised behind a charismatic presidential candidate by one party while strong local campaigns gave control of the houses of parliament to an opposing party."

Kerry Jones from Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy's stated today that Mr Hayden's utterings on the republic are likely to "... be recorded in Australian history as vital to achieving a resounding No vote... "

But before this history changing even can occur the Australian people have a right to know from Mr Hayden if he is a direct electionist or not, or whether his support for the Queen remaining Head of State instead of an Australian President is in fact based on support for the monarchy, or indeed, will his position today be his position tomorrow, or are the words he wrote in his autobiography, which was his position yesterday, really be his position today, or even tomorrow?

Or should Australians simply wait for another confusing position on this issue from Mr Hayden?

Authorised by Malcolm Turnbull, Australian Republican Movement, 60 Park Street, Sydney NSW 2000