The level of youth interest in university republic clubs across our nation refutes claims young Australians are uninterested in an Australian Republic.
There are now the following university republic clubs on university campuses:
- UQ Australian Republic Club;
- QUT Australian Republic Club;
- Griffith Australian Republic Association;
- Macquarie Australian Republic Club;
- UTS Australian Republic Club;
- WSU Australian Republic Club;
- University of Sydney Australian Republic Society;
- UNSW Australian Republic Society;
- UOW Australian Republic Club;
- ANU Australian Republic Association;
- Res Publica: University of Melbourne Republic Club;
- Monash University Australian Republic Club;
- Adelaide University Republican Club;
- UniSA Republican Club;
- Curtin University Australian Republic Club; and
- UWA Republic Club.
The
University of Queensland Australian Republic Club is one of the most active university republic clubs on
Australian campuses and has been involved in Republican movement activity on campus since the early 1990s.
In the
first edition for 2018 of Semper Floreat, the University of Queensland
Student Union newspaper and Queensland’s oldest student newspaper, University
of Queensland Australian Republic Club (UQARC) President Oscar Green offers
his reasons for why the idea of an Australian Republic is important.
Mr Green
said:
For me
it’s about fairness. It’s not fair that Australians don’t get to have a say on
who their head of state is, and it’s not fair that, while we have the British
monarch in that position, a deserving Aussie is missing out.
All
government positions should be chosen on merit instead of family connections.
Australia
is one of the most democratic countries in the world, so becoming a republic
will celebrate this tradition and make people appreciate what Australian
citizenship means.
The UQARC
hopes to start a discussion of the issue among students. Mr Green
said:
People are going to talk about a republic more and more the closer we get to the end of the Queen’s reign and the prospect of Charles as the King of Australia. It just makes sense that Australia should have an Australian head of state — if we were writing the Constitution today, would we pick the leader of another country for our highest office?
Mr Green
also encouraged students to come down to the UQRAC
stall in the Great Court. But you know the future of our nation is in good
hands when you see a koala in an Australian Republic Movement shirt grooving on
to Cold Chisel’s Khe Sanh.
In 2017,
Year 12 student Dan Crowley wrote in his winning
essay, 'Why I am a Republican':
Australia
is a country of merit and reward. That's why we worship sports heroes, those
such as Bradman who mastered his craft with a golf ball,
a wooden bat and a water tank. That's why those born into wealth and privilege
are expected to prove themselves and help those without, and why we so
instinctively support the underdog.
We have
forged our nation, our own identity and our own set of values. We are a nation
of builders, and we earn our own crowns. From the remnants of our colonial
past, we have built something of our own. A nation by no means perfect, but a
nation of our own. A nation shaped by land, climate, history and shared
experience. A nation with culture, passions, food, sport, music and humour of
its very own. We have built this ourselves from the ground up, and the fact the
Queen can just pass by and be adorned with our crown and eternal love should
insult every one of us.
A
new poll showing the majority of Australians support an
Australian republic, while support for the monarchy has fallen to its lowest recorded
level. Just 22 per cent of respondents disagree that Australia should be a
republic with an Australian as head of state. 52 per cent agree that Australia
should be a republic.
The poll also shows Australians know the difference between celebrity news and an independent constitution. Asked if the engagement of Prince Harry and the pregnancy of the Duchess of Cambridge make a difference to their opinion about a republic, 67 per cent of respondents said no. What’s more, 22 per cent of people said they are in fact more likely to support a republic as a result of the royal news!
The poll busts the myth that young Australians support the monarchy because of the popularity of ‘young Royals’. In fact, opposition to a republic is weakest among young people. Just 17 per cent of Aussies 18-24 years old and 15 per cent of Aussies 25-34 are opposed to a republic. In every age group surveyed, more people agree that Australia should become a republic with an Australian as head of state than disagree.
The poll also shows Australians know the difference between celebrity news and an independent constitution. Asked if the engagement of Prince Harry and the pregnancy of the Duchess of Cambridge make a difference to their opinion about a republic, 67 per cent of respondents said no. What’s more, 22 per cent of people said they are in fact more likely to support a republic as a result of the royal news!
The poll busts the myth that young Australians support the monarchy because of the popularity of ‘young Royals’. In fact, opposition to a republic is weakest among young people. Just 17 per cent of Aussies 18-24 years old and 15 per cent of Aussies 25-34 are opposed to a republic. In every age group surveyed, more people agree that Australia should become a republic with an Australian as head of state than disagree.
It’s time
for a new conversation about Australia, our identity and our responsibility,
and to take the future into our hands as a fully independent nation. It is
heartening to see young Australians of all political colours and persuasions
all around Australia wrestling with these ideas.
It’s time
we stopped limiting future generations. We must tell them an Australian is good
enough to be the head of Australia. We need one of our own in the top job. We
are a people who believe in fairness and in a fair go for all. So why is the
top job in Australia limited to someone overseas who was born into it and never
earned it? Our shared national values mean that any Australian should have the
right to our top office rather than complete exclusion from it.
Australia’s
best and brightest university students appear to have already embraced these
ideas.
On 6
November 1999, the Australian Republic Referendum failed, but
now it seems Australia's youth are beginning to "mend the nation’s
heart".
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to find your University club here.
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