Republic model critics should put up or shut up, says Peter Beattie

Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie has backed the latest Republican model for a directly elected Australian head of state and demanded its critics ‘put up or shut up’.

Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie. Picture: Mike Burton

Former Queensland premier Peter Beattie has backed the latest Republican model for a directly elected Australian head of state and demanded its critics, including Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull, “put up or shut up” with a better proposal.

Mr Beattie has warned that the renewed push is already in danger of being sabotaged by a rerun of the same model and divisions in the movement that led to the 1999 republic referendum being rejected by voters.

A longtime supporter of direct election models, the former Labor premier said the proposal from the Australian Republic Movement for the people to elect a head of state from a shortlist of up to 11 candidates – selected by the state, territory and federal parliaments – “has merit”.

“I don’t think it is a perfect model, it can be improved but it is a start,’’ he said. “I think people did it in good faith and goodwill and they should be given credit, we need to have an open mind and let a new generation of Australians lead the debate on this.

“This model was released and then it was attacked by other republicans, and the divisions, which cost us the referendum, continues.

“The royalists must be toasting and thinking ‘here we go again’; the Republicans can’t agree, they put their egos out in front because their opinions are more important than coming up with a model Australians will accept.”

Mr Keating and Mr Turnbull – who led the movement before the 1999 referendum – and former NSW premier Bob Carr are among critics who have savaged the new proposal.

Mr Keating told The Sydney Morning Herald he continued to support the 1999 model of an Australian head of state being appointed by a two-thirds majority of both houses of parliament, which was rejected in referendum vote.

The former Labor Prime Minister warned that a popularly elected president would change Australia’s democracy with an American-style presidency that could “throw up individuals of the Donald Trump variety”.

Mr Beattie said Mr Keating was wrong. “The problem with those arguments in saying that if you have a direct election, you end up with a Trump-style person is just a nonsense,’’ he said.

“It suggests that you can’t trust the Australian people, well, I do. I mean, the Australian people will make the choice. And if you’ve got clear powers for the governor-general, they can’t usurp the elected prime minister.’’

Mr Beattie said the Republic of Ireland elected its president, a ceremonial role, and that the system had worked without undermining the powers of the parliament.

He said republicans needed to unify and work together on a ­direct-election model because he believed Australian’s would never support a revived proposal for politicians to appoint a head of state.

“If they don’t want this model, then they have to come up with a better model, not the old model, not the one that they had and that was rejected by the Australian people,” Mr Beattie said.

“Otherwise, we’ll never see a republic in my lifetime; it just won’t happen.”

ARM chairman Peter Fitz­Simons last week said he thought Australians could have a referendum within four years. He said the movement had support from a majority of sitting federal MPs, but conceded a vote would not happen under a Morrison government, which did not support it.