Republicans tie down top team as they yearn for a Windsor, not

The republic movement has voted in the leadership team it hopes will sever Australia’s constitutional ties to the British monarchy.

Australian Republic Movement chairman Peter FitzSimons yesterday. Picture: Jane Dempster

As Prince Harry and the Duchess of Sussex were putting the final touches on their successful Australian tour, the republic movement last week voted in the leadership team it hopes will sever Australia’s constitutional ties to the British monarchy.

Peter FitzSimons, a prominent media figure whose signature headscarf serves as a red rag to his critics, was elected to a further two years as chairman of the Australian Republic Movement, with mental health advocate and former Australian of the Year Patrick McGorry joining the group’s ­national committee.

FitzSimons yesterday said the “royal rock star’’ popularity of Harry and Meghan would have no impact on support for a republic.

“It is ultimately not about the royal family,’’ he told The Australian. “It is about us.’’

Leading constitutional monarchist David Flint disagreed.

He said Australia had an extraordinary royal family and Harry, through his military service and support for the Invictus Games, had shown himself to be a “magnificent man’’.

Professor Flint, the national convener of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, described as “reckless’’ Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s proposal to test threshold support for a republic before offering a model.

“He is going to have a plebiscite, which is inviting the people to make a vote of no confidence in one of the best constitutions in the world without putting something in its place,’’ Professor Flint said. “I regard that as constitutional vandalism and I see that, in itself, as a reason to strongly oppose a Shorten government.’’

 

The last referendum on a ­republic, held in 1999, was soundly defeated after republicans could not agree on whether an Australian head of state should be appointed by the parliament or ­directly elected by the people.

Graham Richardson, a one-time ALP kingmaker, has declared the republic dead, writing in The Australian yesterday that the popularity of Harry and his ­brother William, a future sovereign, had “squashed’’ the republican movement.

Matt Thistle­thwaite, a Labor MP who would be the minister ­responsible for a republic under a Shorten government, said the growing support for a republic suggested Australians were able to separate their fondness for the British royals from our constitutional arrangements.

“If we become a republic, the relationship between the average Australian and the royal family will not change one bit,’’ he said.

“They will still come to Australia regularly, they will still be welcomed here and they will still ­appear on the front cover of our gossip magazines and newspapers when they get married and have kids.’’

Newspoll surveys show that since April 2011, the month William and Kate were married, support for a republic has grown from a low ebb of 41 per cent to 50 per cent.

Labor supports a two-staged vote on a republic, with a non-binding vote on the threshold question in a first term of government, followed by a referendum to decide a republican model.

The Coalition has made no commitment to hold either a plebiscite or referendum if re-­elected.

Prime Minster Scott Morrison this month revealed his support for the current constitutional ­arrangements, telling Sky News: “I’ve got a lot of respect for the constitutional monarchy and if it ain’t broke, I don’t see the need to fix it.’’

The elevation of the republic to an election issue, albeit a second-order one for most voters, is a triumph for the ARM, which under FitzSimons has rebuilt its membership base and finances, and ­quietly campaigned to put the ­republic back on the political agenda.

Now that it is, FitzSimons’ leadership will come under closer scrutiny, particularly his capacity to bridge the divisions that killed the last push towards a republic.

FitzSimons said he would “stand down in a heartbeat’’ if he believed someone else could do a better job.

“There are people my red bandana drives completely nuts,’’ he said. “I will steer by one star; what can get the republic over the line.’’

In last week’s elections, Fitz­Simons received about 75 per cent of the vote of ARM members. “I think we need more Peters rather than one fewer,’’ ARM national ­director Michael Cooney said.