ARM Media Statement - 7 September 1999

National poll shows Young Australians back the republic

The Australian Republican Movement (ARM) today welcomed the findings of a national survey of young Australians conducted for the Federal Government's Youth Roundtable that found 77 per cent of young people who supported a republic will vote Yes on November 6.

The deputy chair of the ARM, Wendy Machin, said the findings confirmed recent Yes activity across Australia which is seeing increasing numbers of young people wanting to volunteer for the Yes campaign and who were keen to get more information on the referendum.

The Youth Roundtable survey results - based on a survey of 600 15 to 25 year olds across the nation in July this year and part of the National Perspectives Survey by the Youth Bureau of the Federal Department of Education , Training and Youth Affairs - found that:

• 77 per cent of young people who supported an Australian republic would vote Yes

• 41 per cent feel that know enough about the Yes case

• 39 per cent feel they know enough about the No case

• Only 37 per cent feel they have received enough information about the republic and constitutional reform.

"The survey confirms our own private research and what youth for the republic groups have been finding across the country - and that is that young Australians want far more information about the referendum and what is being proposed," said Ms Machin.

"Replacing the Queen with an Australian president as Head of State will affect young Australians more than any other group in the community. This is because the change is about them and their future, and the right of any Australian young person to aspire to be the Head of State of their own country, which at the moment, they cannot do."

Young republican groups are operating across Australia as part of Yes Coalitions on the republic and events such as concerts, debates, republic in the pub nights, postcard distribution and TAFE and university information campaigns are in swing nationally.

A member of the Federal Government's Youth Roundtable and a young republican, Ryan Heath, said the referendum could well be decided by young people, many of whom will be voting for the first time at the November 6 republic referendum poll.

"As we talk to other young Australians across the country, we're finding they are actually quite passionate about this issue, whatever their political allegiance may be," said Mr Heath.

He said the referendum is all about Australia standing on its own two feet and being a country in which the whole nation says, 'yes, we believe in ourselves and we believe that as Australians, we're grown up enough to run our own affairs completely, without the need for a foreign Queen, who does not live among us, to be our Head of State.'

While Mr Heath said final Roundtable survey figures are not yet available, preliminary findings suggest that rather than being the career and money-obsessed creatures, which many people painted young Australians, national identity and independence are big issues for them.

"Many people in their late teens and early 20s, like me, sometimes think we don't have enough opportunity to have input into major decisions that affect our future. However, this referendum is a big opportunity for us to have our say, and I think you'll find we want to say 'yes'. A Yes vote in this referendum is about tomorrow and about a confident Australia."

The youth component of the Yes republic campaign for young people is now in full swing. As well as targeting mainstream youth media, music venues and extensively using the Internet and on-line media, youth Yes ambassadors are also being recruited to get the republic message out to young Australians.

Mr Heath said an intensive national youth campaign is working to get the Yes youth vote out and will continue right up to polling day. "While we know that youth support for a republic is high, there is no way we are going to take this for granted.

"We're out there everyday getting the positive message out that Australia deserves its own Head of State, and it is about time that our Constitution gets real and reflects reality by having our own Head of State who lives here and who is Australian."

Mr Heath and ARM deputy chair Wendy Machin said the republic referendum is the first opportunity for many young Australians to participate in making a decision which will be nationally historic, and which will affect the way Australia sees itself, and way the world sees Australia.

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