Paul Keating blasts PM Malcolm Turnbull over Australian Republic

MALCOLM Turnbull’s suggestion that a postal survey could be held on whether Australia should become a republic has reignited calls for a plebiscite by 2020. VOTE, HAVE YOUR SAY

MALCOLM Turnbull’s suggestion that a postal survey could be held on whether Australia should become a republic has reignited calls for a plebiscite by 2020.

The Prime Minster raised the possibility today of a postal vote being held to answer the key questions of what kind of government Australians would want if the nation were to break constitutional ties with Britain.

He was responding to a scathing criticism from former Prime Minister Paul Keating over his lack of action on the republic issue.

Australian Republic Movement Chair Peter Fitzsimons has now called on Mr Turnbull commit to holding a national vote on an Australian republic after the next election.

“We are thrilled with the return of the PM — long the most passionate republican in the country — to moving forward the process of becoming a republic,” he said today.

“The leaders on both sides of politics clearly want this to happen.

“Now it’s not a question of if, but how.”

Malcolm Turnbull’s suggestion that a postal survey could be held on whether Australia should become a republic, breaking ties with Britain, has reignited calls for a plebiscite by 2020. Picture: AFP/ John Stillwell

ARM proposes that two national votes should be held in 2020; one to answer the question of whether Australia should have an Australian head of state and one to answer how Australia’s head of state should be chosen.

The votes could be held at the same time.

Mr Fitzsimmons said a vote on a republic would be a unifying moment for Australia.

Earlier, Mr Turnbull hit back at Mr Keating’s “barely coherent” attack on him today after the former Prime Minister said it was “pathetic” Australia had not become a republic yet.

Mr Keating had made scathing remarks about Mr Turnbull’s lack of action on the issue as Prime Minister, implying he was a phony republican.

“He has little or no policy ­ambition and commensurably little imagination, no system of prevailing beliefs,” Mr Keating had told The Australian today.

“Was (his republicanism) just Malcolm being another chameleon doing another chameleon act as he has on so many other things? You know, I was real but is Malcolm real?”

Mr Keating also blasted John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott for lacking the courage to push for a republic after the failed 1999 referendum.

Mr Turnbull responded to the comments this morning, saying Mr Keating was completely wrong.

“Paul’s remarks today were, I thought, they were barely coherent,” he told reporters in Sydney.

Prime Minister Paul Keating puts his hand on the Queen’s back as she is introduced to businesswoman Janet Holmes a' Court, during her visit to Canberra, 1992.

“I don’t know what’s prompted Paul to come out swinging at everyone.

“He seems to be critical of every prime minister and former prime minister apart from himself.

“It must be good for Paul to feel he is without fault or blemish but in the real world, we gave it a red-hot go in ’99.

“I expect it will become an issue again after the end of the Queen’s reign, but I don’t think it will become a frontline issue before then.”

Asked if he had a plan for transitioning Australia away from the monarchy and into a republic — which will require a referendum to change the constitution — Mr Turnbull said the key would be to have a public debate first on how an Australian president would be elected.

He said a plebiscite, or even a postal survey, could be held for the Australian people to have their say.

“This is a question for the Australian people and Australians have shown themselves to be very conservative when it comes to constitutional change,” Mr Turnbull said.

He said there was no point pretending that there was an appetite for change now when there wasn’t one at the moment.

The latest opinion poll shows a narrow majority of Australians back the nation becoming a republic.

Malcolm Turnbull on Christmas Day at Wayside Chapel, Kings Cross. Picture: Dylan Robinson

A Newspoll in August showed 51 per cent supported the change, while 38 per cent opposed it and another 11 per cent are undecided.

The issue is likely to flare in the next three years however after Labor leader Bill Shorten vowed to hold a plebiscite on the republic if his party wins the next election.

Mr Keating was scathing of all five prime ministers that succeeded him in an interview with The Australiantoday to mark the release of the 1994-95 Cabinet papers.

“A whole series of prime ministers have broken the nation’s heart on the republic,” Mr Keating told the paper.

“How utterly absurd is it that now in the 21st century, with all the ­development of Asia around us, that we have got to borrow the monarch of another country, and in this case Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain.

“It’s a spoof against everything we have created here.

“I mean, how pathetic.

“No great state has ever had the monarch of another country as its head of state.

“Australia is a diminished country, diminished by its own hand, maintaining the monarchy and our reliance upon the sovereignty of Great Britain.”

Mr Keating also warned against Australia selecting a model of government for the republic that involved a popularly elected president.

“We could end up with a ­Donald Trump personality as the singular presidential person in Australia,” he toldThe Australian.

“The mere fact that that person is the only person popularly elected will draw all of the political power.

“The position of the prime minister and the cabinet will be mightily diminished.”

It echoes the warning he gave republicans in 1995 that voters could not be trusted to deliver a president of the appropriate “calibre”.

The model proposed instead was for a president to be appointed by a two-thirds majority of a joint sitting of both houses of parliament.

Originally published as Paul Keating blasts PM Malcolm Turnbull over Australian Republic