A bonny prince, but we deserve to be a republic

THE media frenzy and swooning women that have characterised Prince William's visit to Australia mask an awkward reality.

This 27-year-old man, a stranger to our shores, is pre-ordained to be our head of state. There will be no election, no contest and no vote. No correspondence will be entered into.

And as sensible as he appears now, the prince will still assume the mantle if he takes to talking to plants, drinking at breakfast or howling at the moon.

His one and only qualification for the job came at the moment of birth. So after his grandmother retires or expires, and presumably after the same occurs with his father, he shall be king of England and, as such, head of state to 15 other Commonwealth countries, including Australia.

So seriously is he taking this responsibility that he is spending barely three days in Sydney and Melbourne to familiarise himself with this dominion. Yes, there is a harbour and we do have an army.

So while the prince surveys a nation he's destined to preside over, we should revisit the republic debate

One of the reasons the republican push has failed to maintain momentum is its tendency to focus too often on one simple argument: that our head of state should be Australian.

Our head of state should be loyal to Australia, but this seems to be the weakest of the arguments. It is more important, for instance, that our head of state should be exclusively our head of state, not merely the figurehead of a foreign nation declared, by extension, the head of 15 others.

However, there is one clear argument for the republic that trumps all others. And we seldom hear it articulated.

It is the simple proposition of merit in a democracy.

We teach our children daily that they should strive to succeed on merit. That hard work will be rewarded. That we are all valued equally.

We explain to them that we have a democratic system that strives to ensure the will of the people is expressed through their parliaments and their governments. Political power is acquired through the ballot box and other positions of authority are appointed by our democratically elected representatives, again on merit.

We have numerous legislative devices to protect these values of democracy and merit.

Yet at the very pinnacle of our system of government, we place a person who wins their position as a family heirloom.

This, of course, is an argument against the monarchy altogether. And certainly there are those in Britain who argue in favour of the republican cause.

We should not wait for Britain. Rather, we should thank the Brits for the fine tradition of parliamentary democracy they fostered here, then move to refine it.

The key reform is to ensure that the person at the very top of our system, the figurehead of our nation, is someone who is appointed through the will of the people and on merit, not through the happenstance of bloodlines.

Many republicans probably avoid this argument for fear it gives oxygen to the push for a directly elected president.

So be it; if Australians want a directly elected president, that is what we should get. I would argue that having a two-thirds majority of the parliament endorse a head of state proposed by the government of the day would protect the balance in our existing system while injecting a sufficient level of democracy and merit.

Nonetheless, this is a debate we should welcome, rather than trying to win people over with glib lines about making sure we have an Aussie at the top.

Many republicans are hibernating these days, thinking they'll await the passing of the popular Queen, then re-engage under a less popular monarch.

This week's visit provides a cautionary lesson, because it's shown that our next monarch but one may well have inherited much of his grandmother's dignity along with his mother's star power.

So popularity can't be the issue. It is the substance of the argument that must be won: ensuring that our respect for democracy and merit is reflected at the pinnacle of our system.

For now, a dignified young man comes to Australia to familiarise himself with a country he doesn't know. What he does know is it will one day look up to him as its head of state.

Slightly embarrassing for him, I would have thought, but downright humiliating for us.

Chris Kenny was chief of staff to former opposition leader and Australian Republican Movement chair Malcolm Turnbull.