Turnbull stokes fresh division by flagging plebiscite on republic model

The PM has created fresh tension after floating a postal survey or plebiscite as a way to gauge support for a republican model.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Picture: AAP.

Malcolm Turnbull has floated a postal survey or plebiscite to gauge support for the vexed ­question at the heart of an ­Australian republican model — whether to have a directly elected president — if the Queen’s reign ends while he is still Prime ­Minister.

Mr Turnbull, an avowed ­republican who led the “yes” campaign when the question ­failed to gain popular support in 1999, yesterday flagged a survey as one way of facilitating a ­national debate on a republic ­before holding a referendum to amend the Constitution.

He also dismissed as “barely coherent” criticism from Paul Keating that he lacked the ­political imagination to advance the republic after the former Labor prime minister lashed out at Australia’s political leaders for failing to keep the issue on the agenda.

But Mr Turnbull’s comments immediately sparked divisions within the Coalition. Tony ­Abbott, a staunch constitutional monarchist, told The Australian it appeared Mr Turnbull was “jumping on the Keating bandwagon” by holding out the prospect of a plebiscite.

But Mr Abbott agreed with Mr Turnbull that there was “no appetite for change”, saying: “This means there’s no need for a plebiscite.”

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, also a monarchist, said Mr Keating’s “annual outbursts” were becoming “plain boring”.

Mr Turnbull said Australians were conservative when it came to constitutional reform and there was no point pretending there was an appetite for change “when there isn’t one at the ­moment’’.

Mr Turnbull reaffirmed his view, first expressed after the ­republican referendum failed in 1999, that the best time to ­advance change would be at the end of the Queen’s reign.

“We all say long live the Queen and we say that with great ­sincerity and love,” Mr Turnbull said. “If you are asking me how you would go about it in the event of the issue becoming live again, I think the first thing that you would need to do is to have an honest, open discussion about how a president would be elected ... (and) whether the president would be chosen by parliament in a bipartisan two-thirds majority — as proposed in 1999 — or ­directly elected.

“That is the rock on which the referendum foundered in 99. You’ve got to have that discussion and you know it may be that a plebiscite — maybe even a postal survey given the success of the marriage postal survey — could be one way to deal with that.”

Mr Turnbull believes the question on how a president would be elected must be resolved and have popular support before a referendum for constitutional change can be contemplated. The key problem is the issue of a directly elected president.

The proposal starts with strong public support but once people are informed an elected president would have an alternative political mandate to the prime minister, this support tends to collapse.

A plebiscite or postal survey may be a way of resolving this issue of whether to have a popularly elected president or a president elected by parliament.

Mr Turnbull believes the ­electorate has moved beyond the point where they would accept a simple vote on whether to become a republic — as proposed by Labor — and would need to know what sort of republican model they would be voting for.

The chair of the Australian ­Republic Movement, Peter Fitz­Simons, welcomed Mr Turnbull’s statement. “Mr Turnbull should now commit to a national vote on an Australian republic during the next parliament,” he said. “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. The leaders on both sides of politics clearly want this to happen. Now it’s not a question of if, but how.”

Mr Keating who committed to a republic and advanced it as a frontline issue when he was prime minister in the 1990s, attacked Mr Turnbull in yesterday’s The ­Australian for a “denial of responsibility” in not campaigning for change. “He has little or no policy ambition and commensurably ­little imagination, no system, of prevailing beliefs,” Mr Keating said. “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 Turnbull hit back at the comments, saying Mr Keating ­appeared to be “critical of every prime minister and former prime minister apart from himself”.

“It must be good for Paul to feel that he’s without fault or blemish, but in the real world we gave it a red hot go in 99,” Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Dutton attacked Mr Keating, saying the former Labor leader had “never felt comfortable in his own skin”. Mr Dutton also suggested Mr Keating had never recovered from his defeat in 1996 to John Howard. “He cringes when he looks in the mirror each morning and wishes what could have been,” Mr Dutton said. “He has ­always lived in the shadow of Hawke and was half the prime minister. The negative public view of Paul Keating hasn’t softened and he has never got over it.

“If the republic was such a great idea why could he never convince Rudd and Gillard to drive it? Keating embarrasses himself when he says Australia can’t reach its ­potential without being a republic. Keating may be uncomfortable about his purpose in the world, but Australia is not. We are proud of who we are.”

Labor spokesman for an Australian head of state Matt Thistlethwaite said if Mr Turnbull was committed to a republic he should outline a plan instead of coming up with “random thought bubbles”. “Bill Shorten announced in July last year that, if elected, by the end of our first term we will put a simple, straightforward question to the people of Australia: Do you support an Australian republic with an Australian head of state?

“If the yes vote prevails — and Labor is optimistic it will — then we will work with the Australian people to consider how that head of state is chosen.”

Mr Abbott, who piloted the “no” campaign at the 99 referendum, took to Twitter to accuse Mr Keating of undermining Australia’s standing in world affairs. “We don’t need to dump the Queen to be a great country. Republicans will never win by running Australia down,” he said.