Republic is unfinished business

For a measure of how gun-shy the Albanese government has become following the defeat of the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, look no further than the push for Australia to become a republic. Despite Labor listing the issue as a priority before the federal election and appointing an assistant minister to progress the proposal, any plans to take it to the public have been put firmly on ice. This is despite the fact many ordinary Australians long have held the view that the passing of Queen Elizabeth II would be an appropriate time to make the transition to having an Australian citizen as the nation’s head of state. Sufficient time now has passed since the queen’s death in September 2022 for the issue to be put back on the table without any sign of disrespect.

The queen herself said in a speech at the Sydney Opera House in March 2000, four months after the failed 1999 republic referendum: “I have always made it clear that the future of the monarchy in Australia is an issue for you, the Australian people, and you alone to decide by democratic and constitutional means. It should not be otherwise.” King Charles, as Prince of Wales, visited in 1994 and told Paul Kelly he welcomed Australia’s republican debate as a sign of maturity and “as a perfectly sensible thing to be doing in the light of changing circumstances”. If Australians decided on change, he said, “there’s no point panicking about that or thinking it’s some frightful insult or something to the Crown”. Charles was philosophical. “Who knows what’ll happen in 30 years’ time. I don’t know,” he said. He had “the greatest possible affection for Australia and it’s not going to make the slightest difference. You’d come as a visitor from a country with which Australia has very close relationships”.

Thirty years have passed since the King made those remarks and we are still none the wiser. As a newspaper, we have been vocal in our support for Australia to become a republic. Much needs to be done to settle on an appropriate model to avoid the confusions that scuttled the 1999 referendum. As we have editorialised previously, a fundamental question divided republicans at the 1998 constitutional convention: Should an Australian head of state be elected or appointed by parliament? And if appointed, on what criteria and for how long? These are the issues on which attention must be focused to avoid the repeat disasters of 1999 and the voice referendum last year.

In both cases, voters perceived they were giving too much power to the political class to make decisions that should be known before their votes were cast. Instead, with the voice referendum lost and the Albanese government’s fortunes being challenged in opinion polls, we have entered a period of timid withdrawal. Enough for Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt to opine: “For an outfit supposedly run by conviction politicians it’s getting harder by the day to work out what Labor actually believes in.” Stung by the mishandled voice, Labor must regroup, but it cannot afford to vacate the reform pitch on any issue.

Anthony Albanese may be correct in his calculation that Australians do not want to be put through another potentially divisive referendum at this time. But by letting the issue of a republic slide the Prime Minister is admitting that the government miscalculated in letting the voice referendum overshadow what was clearly the most pressing issue for voters: cost of living. But there is now a danger of overcorrecting. If he is going to continue with the task, Assistant Minister for the Republic Matt Thistlethwaite has a lot of work to do. His attempt at playing envy politics with the Crown, claiming the King is out of touch with the cost-of-living pressures on ordinary Australians, will not cut it. Mr Thistlethwaite used a radio interview on Monday to state the government’s case. He said longer term becoming a republic was part of the Labor platform. The ALP believed the current method of selecting our head of state was undemocratic. It did not represent modern Australian values. At the moment, however, the government’s priority was cost-of-living relief, he said.

This approach states the obvious – that the Albanese government is paying the price for taking its eye off the main game last year as interest rates rose and household budgets tightened. Now may not be the time to rush to another referendum. But the government must show it is able to walk and chew gum across a range of issues. Becoming a republic is unfinished business that requires attention so that when the time is right a considered plan, worthy of support, can be put to a public campaign.