Good morning ,
Over the weekend, I was in Sydney for the AGM of the Australian Republic
Movement (and a strategic planning workshop). Now you may think, after the outcome of the Voice referendum, that another referendum is ... well, let's just say highly unlikely.
And you'd be right. But ...
As the new CEO of the ARM said, why should the Australian people give up one of the two systems we have to really influence the way our country is? Its values, its direction, its sense of who we are and what we stand for?
One way we do that is by electing people to represent us in parliament. They are empowered to make decisions and laws that shape what's permissable and what's not. And if we don't like the way they're doing that - if their decisions and laws don't align with ours - we have the right to toss them out and put others in their place every few years.
But the other way is to update our constitution, the most basic of all documents that sets out our values and lists our rules.
Why would we just shrug
our shoulders and say, "Oh well, it's all too hard"?
No, we should have more referenda, not fewer!
Maybe before a formal referendum, we should push for a marriage equality-style national postal vote that simply asks: "Should Australia become a republic?" or perhaps, "Should Australia's head of state be Australian?"
If the majority of people say
no, well, so be it. But I don't think so. If you have any pride in being Australian - or if you want to recover your pride in being Australian - then you'd have to agree it's past time to say, "Thanks very much, Brits, we can take it from here."
It's going to take some time, but we
need to build momentum for an Australian head of state and a republic. If you aren't already a member, please join us!
