It appears we are in the throes of another Australian
republican moment. There have been previously three major republican moments in
Australian history. Each of these republican moments occurred seemingly out of
nowhere resulting in republican arguments becoming prominent in Australian
political discourse. Hitting like a republican strike of lightening, an event
such as the knighting of Prince Philip creates a new zeitgeist, a new republican ‘spirit of the times’. Of course, the
reality is the political landscape was already covered in republican tinder
that had built up over years.
I wrote recently that the sunlight of
Australian independence is appearing over the horizon and it
was a great time to be an
Australian republican. Confidence is growing that Australians are going to get
there, helped along by the fact that we finish the year with Australia’s
most famously passionate republican as our Prime Minister, as well as the
Opposition Leader, all six Premiers, and both Chief Ministers of the Territories
as republicans.
2015 will come to be viewed as the year
that the renewed push toward an Australian republic began. There are many
reasons for this prediction including Peter FitzSimons’ ground breaking speech to the National Press Club, the ALP’s updated republican policy, Australian Republican Movement's former
National Chair Malcolm Turnbull’s ascendance to the prime ministership, and Prince
Charles and Camilla’s lack lustre royal visit in November. But really the momentum
began to build early in 2015 with the memorable knighting of Prince Philip.
This latest moment of alignment of the
stars of the Southern cross began on Australia Day 2015 with former Prime
Minister Tony Abbott’s bizarre ‘captain’s pick’ to award an Australian Knighthood to the Queen’s
consort Prince Philip.
Abbott
had taken Australia by surprise in March 2014 when he brought back knights and dames of the Order of
Australia with little to no consultation. The titles had been discontinued in
Australia in 1986 and the decision to reintroduce them was met with much derision.
When
Australians woke on Australia Day 2015, having heard the previous evening Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s positive comments about our republican
future, the overwhelming public response of disbelief to the announcement demonstrated that Australians recognised that our
identity is Australian, not colonial, anymore.
What was confirmed in the response to Tony Abbott’s restoration of
Knights and Dames and the granting of an Australian knighthood to Prince Philip
is the strength of republican values in contemporary Australia. That means
support for our independence, support for our own institutions and a belief in
our own capacity to govern.
Tony Abbott’s
staunch support for the monarchy during his political career and popular visits
from Prince William and his family over the past few years had put the
republican debate on the backburner. Early in 2015, the Queensland Newman LNP
government and its monarchical horde were
removed. Since the election
of the LNP Newman Government in 2012, there had been a steady output of
ideological revisionism aimed at bolstering the concept of monarchy in
Queensland. By June 2015 Queensland looked
like becoming a little less 'Queenie' with the proposed move
of the Queen’s Birthday holiday next year to October
to return Labour Day to its traditional date, Even Prime Minister Abbott had
been rattled by the republican sentiment in the country and had not taken the
opportunity to appoint more ‘Sirs and Dames’ in the honours list.
In July
2015 the Australian Republican Movement appointed distinguished
author, journalist and Australian rugby union international Peter
FitzSimons as national Chair as it geared up for a high-profile campaign ahead
of the next Federal election.
On the evening of Monday, 14 September
2015, Malcolm Turnbull became the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. This
was a game-changer for Australian republicans. The removal of Prime Minister
Abbott, a former National Director, Australians for Constitutional Monarchy,
began with his unpopular first budget in 2014 and continued with his
widely-mocked decision to award a knighthood to Queen
Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip
on Australia Day, 2015. The successful coup resulted in Australia’s fourth
leader since 2013 and followed an 18-month run of dismal polls from former
Prime Minister Tony Abbott. Facing an electoral wipe-out at the next election,
due in 2016, the Federal Coalition turned to Malcolm Turnbull, who came to
national prominence as National Chair of the Australian Republican Movement and
chief proponent of an
Australian head of state
in the lead up to the 1999 referendum. With that the King of the Monarchists
was felled.
The first significant policy change for the
Turnbull Government was to call it a knight on titles. In abolishing
the titles of Knight and Dame from the Order of Australia awards,
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull helped grow our current Australian republican
moment.
***
The mid-nineteenth century saw the first republican moment in
Australia’s past. This was a period in which colonial grievances reached their
height. In
Sydney in 1850 the outspoken firebrand Reverend John Dunmore Lang, the People’s Advocate editor E.J. Hawksley
and the young Henry Parkes campaigned through the Australian League for a
republican form of government when the British government wanted to reintroduce
transportation of convicts. By 1852, Lang had
published Freedom and Independence
for the Golden Lands of Australia, an appeal
for the establishment of a United States of Australia. This was the first
argued case for an Australian republic.
In the early 1850s
during the gold rushes there was an influx of large numbers of migrants from
Europe and the United States to Victoria, many of whom were sympathetic to
republicanism. This caused British officials to fear the possibility of
revolution. In 1854, the Eureka Stockade rebellion at the Ballarat goldfield
was ultimately a republican desire for government by the people. However, the
urgency vanished when responsible government was granted in 1856.
The second republican moment occurred
during the late 1880s to early 1890s. This was a time when republicanism became
strongly anti-monarchical and nationalist in sentiment. The ‘inevitability’ of
an Australian republic became a common theme.
The radical bookshop was the heartland of nineteenth-century
radicalism. In the back rooms of radical bookstores and newspaper printeries
sprinkled throughout the colonies, republicanism was a topic of heated
discussion. Many of the radical republican writers of the 1880s and 1890s found
a vehicle for their ideas in the radical newspapers and journals. By the 1880s,
Australians had become a more mobile people. In addition a majority were
native-born and most were literate. These two factors helped in providing an
audience for the many nationalist writers who were active in the last three
decades of the century. By the 1880s and 1890s, radical journals such as the Bulletin, Louisa Lawson’s The Dawn and the short-lived Republican in Sydney, the Clipper
in Hobart, the Tocsin in Melbourne, the Worker and Boomerang
in Brisbane and the Charters Towers Australian Republican reflected the radical,
intellectual and political energies emerging in Australian life. For these
journals, Australian nationalism was closely interwoven with republicanism.
The
Commonwealth of Australia was the title chosen for the new nation at the 1891
National Constitutional Convention. Although there was controversy over the
republican ancestry of the term it was the title accepted in 1901. Prior to the
mid-1890s, republicans had insisted that national independence could be
achieved only by Australia’s secession from the Empire. However, by 1901
federation was seen as the first step on the road towards political independence.
There were brief republican moments in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1960s republican activity was restarted by
authors Geoffrey Dutton and Donald Horne. At the same time the student magazine
Oz lampooned the monarchy. However,
the dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam by the appointed Governor-General
on 11 November 1975 outraged many Australians. Since those turbulent days,
several notable Australians declared a commitment to an Australian republic.
There were many Town Hall meetings and calls to ‘maintain the rage’.
The third significant republican
moment
was during the 1990s. In 1991 the Australian Republican Movement was
established, with Tom Keneally as the Inaugural Chair. In 1993 Prime Minister
Paul Keating formed the Republic Advisory Committee, led by Malcom Turnbull to
prepare options on how to achieve a republic with minimal constitutional
change. In June 1995, Keating announced his goal of a republic with an
Australian head of state. The 1998 Constitutional Convention helped to strengthen the debate for a
republic. However, on 6 November 1999 the
republic referendum was defeated because many pro-republicans voted ‘no’
as they feared that without a direct election they would gain a ‘politician’s
republic’.
While the
republic was a major issue in the late 1990s, the debate was caught up in an
argument about the best selection method for the Head of State and on this
crucial issue republicans divided. With the waters muddied in this way – and
not cleared with proper community engagement – the voting public said no.
It appears 2015 is the beginning of the fourth republican moment in
Australian history. An
Australian republic is back in the headlines, and the Australian Republican
Movement has bold new leadership with Peter FitzSimons AO. Right
now, Australians are thinking and talking about our national leadership, and
our national identity, in ways they haven't for a long time. And better
still, the ARM's membership has quadrupled this year.
So where to
from here?
The Prime Minister
set the Australian Republican Movement a challenge when he recently
remarked that:
"The republic issue
cannot belong to a politician, it's got to be a genuine popular movement."
Grassroots
activism is the focus for enabling change - changing the minds of Australians,
one by one if necessary. Perhaps it is the Scouts who are showing the way.
Their survey of all members nation-wide on their view to the removal of the oath to the
Queen in the Scout
Promise ends on 31 December 2015. The purpose to removing
the oath is not only about making the Scouts more inclusive, but an
understanding that Australia is changing. Their review acknowledges this nation
seeking its own identity as part of being Australian.
The Scouts can see the change that is coming.
Change is coming.
Let's all work to ensure this fourth time we achieve our republican destiny.
