An Australian Republic ?

With Queen Elizabeth aged ninety-one it is inevitable that the issue of Australia becoming a republic will rise front and centre again in the near future.  Affection for the Queen has put this issue on the backburner but this Turnbull/Keating debate is giving it new life.

Australia rejected a referendum that proposed appointing a president selected by a joint sitting of both houses of parliament delivering a two thirds majority to the person selected by the politicians.  John Howard was prime minister at that time and he is an avowed monarchist.

If we do become a Republic the Australian public will not settle for less than a popular vote to elect the man or woman who will preside in this country.  The politicians rejected this on the grounds that we might not pick someone who is deemed " suitable " !

That does raise an interesting question. " Republics " come in several shapes and sizes.  The American system delivers almost unlimited power to the person in the Oval officer, but in other countries the president is a mere figurehead - and power remains in the hands of a prime minister.

The thinking at the time of the referendum was to simply replace the monarchy and its figurehead role with what the politicians hoped would be a tame cat figure with very limited power.  There was danger that if a strong personality won office it might result in a constitutional battle between the President and the prime minister for control of the levers of power.

The election of Donald Trump to the American presidency probably closed the door on conversion to an American style presidency here.  Electing an Australian president with exactly the same powers as the present monarchy would present the least disruption to our way of life - and deliver the prime objective of having an Australian as head of state.

We would be wise to think long and hard on the conditions we would apply to any presidential hopeful.  The American founding fathers insisted that their president must be over twenty-five years old - and born in the United States.   That seems a slap in the face to many in a country founded by migrants.  We have just gone through constitutional confusion because our constitution bars those with dual nationalities from sitting in parliament.  Hopefully, the only requirement of an Australian presidential contender would be that he or she holds valid citizenship in this country.

That last republic referendum was simply designed to fail and given the Queen's extreme age the issue may be revisited very abruptly.  It would be an important status change and making a decision with an non compulsory postal vote would be an insult to the Australian people.  Exactly what sort of republic should be spelt out in detail and that needs the same sort of elective vote that we demand for parliamentary elections.

Both Turnbull and Keating are doing the nation a favour in raising the republic issue for general debate.  We need to consider the implications before the pressure of a decisive campaign which will require us to put pen to paper in a vote.  Without doubt, this is an emerging issue that will probably burst on the scene and divide the nation.  We would do well to think through the implications before the real issue becomes submerged in political in-fighting.