Billy ‘Bland’ Shorten will be taking Aussies to the polls over the issue of an Australian republic if the Labor party win the next election. At least that’s what he’ll apparently be saying at tomorrow night’s Australian Republic Movement gala dinner in Melbourne.
Labor would hold a simple ‘Yes/No’ vote on whether the public wants an Aussie head of state. If the answer is yes, Labor would come up with a model for how to appoint or elect the new head of state. A referendum would then be held to vote on that model:
“By the end of our first term we will put a simple, straightforward question to the people of Australia: ‘Do you support an Australian Republic with an Australian head of state?’ If the yes vote prevails – and I’m optimistic it will – then we can consider how that head of state is chosen.”
For such a referendum to pass, voters need to vote ‘Yes’ in a majority of states, and as a majority across the country.
A quick explainer: many, many people reckon Australia ought to extricate itself from the Commonwealth, not least because the Queen – via her representative the Governor-General – as our head of state still has to approve every law, election and appointment made by the government. While unlikely, under the current arrangement, another Dismissal could theoretically happen.
We last voted in a referendum on the republic in 1999, with our PM Malcolm Turnbull at the helm of the Australian Republican Movement. The result was 45% ‘Yes’ to 55% ‘No’.
Our Mal met with Liz for the first time earlier this month and said an absurd thing: “Even Republicans like myself can be, and in my case are, very strong Elizabethans as well.”
While he still personally supports an Australian republic, he told members of the Australian Republican Movement at the end of last year, that he thinks it might be worth sitting on it until the Queen passes away.
Shorten’s plan would effectively do away with the problem that mired the last campaign: exactly how the nation would choose its new head of state. Some people voted ‘No’ because they did not think that the new head of state should be be appointed by Parliament. The referendum question in ’99 explicitly stated that the new president would be appointed by a two-thirds vote in parliament, rather than elected by the public.
Shorten’s speech reads:
“We cannot risk being caught in a referendum like the last one, where Australians were given one vote to settle two questions.“When a lot of people voted ‘No’, because of the model, not because of the republic.
“The first, clear question we ask the people should be whether we want an Australian head of state.”
And an Australian republic doesn’t mean totally excising ourselves from the Commonwealth:
“We can vote for a republic and recognise that Will and Kate have two seriously cute kids. We can vote for a republic and still binge watch ‘The Crown‘ on Netflix. And we can vote for a republic without derailing the business of government, or the priorities of this nation.”
Source: Buzzfeed / Sydney Morning Herald.
Photo: WPA Pool / Getty.
