The spirit of National Wattle Day

September 1 is ‘National Wattle Day’ — a time when the smells of Spring are in the air as well as Australia’s vivid gold blossom.

2013 is the centenary of the addition of a spray of wattle as the background feature to the Australian Coat of Arms. And today, 1 September 2013, is the 20^th anniversary of the Australian Republican Movement giving its support to ‘National Wattle Day’ celebrations throughout Australia.

Australians may have made a home for themselves amongst the gum trees, but it is the wattle tree that has found its way into Australian symbolism. It is a symbol that comes directly from our land. Wattle is Australian and represents us all. Unlike other national days, ‘National Wattle Day’ excludes no one. Like our people, wattle has great diversity (with nearly 1,000 species) and resilience. It is a unifying symbol for all Australians. There is no other symbol that says so much about us and our land.

‘National Wattle Day’ is celebrated annually on the first day of Spring, when a sprig of Australia’s official national floral emblem, the Golden Wattle, Acacia pycnantha is traditionally worn. Australian Olympic athletes wear wattle inspired green and gold uniforms. Governor General Sir William Deane took wattle blossoms to Switzerland to commemorate young Australians who died there and Prime Minister John Howard wore sprigs of wattle at ceremonies after the Bali bombings.

The green and gold of the Golden Wattle leaves and blossoms were declared national colours in 1984 and in 1988 the wattle was adopted as the official national flower.

The 1^st of September 1992 was formally declared as ‘National Wattle Day’ by then Minister for the Environment, Ros Kelly, and on 1 September 1993, the Australian Republican Movement gave its support to Wattle Day celebrations.

Wattle celebrations first arose as occasions when earlier generations of Australians stood up and said:

“I am from this land. This place is home.”

Like the Southern Cross, the appeal of the wattle is not first and foremost to the idea of the nation — but to the idea of place. ‘National Wattle Day’ captures something crucial to the success of the republic — a feeling for country and a spirit of place. It is from this sense of place that the spirit of the future republic will emerge.

The first known use of wattle as a meaningful emblem in the Australian colonies was in Hobart Town in 1838, when a resident suggested wearing a sprig of wattle to celebrate the golden jubilee of the landing at Sydney Cove. There was, in this seemingly small gesture, a suggestion of an independent Australia.

At a regatta in 1842 to mark the anniversary of Tasman’s discovery of Van Diemen’s Land, many of the celebrant’s again wore a sprig of wattle.

The Golden Wattle was the first symbol of the Adelaide Australian Natives’ Association’s ‘Wattle Blossom League’. On Foundation Day, 26 January 1891, the Adelaide ANA represented itself with a Wattle Blossom Banner embroidered with Golden Wattle by its ladies’ branch.

But it was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that an official Wattle Day was proclaimed after a suggestion made by the naturalist Archibald Campbell in Sydney. Campbell’s suggestion led to a meeting to form a Wattle Day League which coordinated the states into celebrating the first Wattle Day on 1 September 1910. The Wattle Day League was a patriotic society in the vein of the Australian Natives’ Association. The day was a celebration of the unique land, people and institutions of Australia, and was marked in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney with activities including the planting of wattle trees in the school grounds, decorating public sites with wattle and wearing wattle.

At the time the Sydney Morning Herald wrote:

“To the native born Australian the wattle stands for home, country, kindred, sunshine and love — every instinct that the heart deeply enshrines.”

The celebration of the day continued until the beginning of the First World War.

Wattle first appeared on Australia’s Coat of Arms 100 years ago when the Andrew Fisher had taken a keen interest in the complex question of national identity and set about to ‘Australianise’ our government system and national symbols. Home-grown symbols, he knew in his heart, were essential for a nation so young.
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette of 18 January 1913 promulgated a new Coat of Arms for Australia.  During 1911 and 1912, Labor Prime Minister

Among the significant changes made in the 1913 Coat of Arms was the inclusion of a spray of wattle as a background feature and a Federation Star, and instead of a shield displaying the English cross of St George, there was one showing the emblems of the six states.

Wattle Day Association President, Terry Fewtrell stated:

“It is all the more appropriate that Wattle is the background of our national Coat of Arms, as it has been here for millennia. Wattle has welcomed us all – indigenous, colonial and modern day immigrants.”

Wattle has been the great witness to the entire Australian story.

‘National Wattle Day’ is about land and people. Wattle is the blaze of colour that paints Australia’s landscape every year. It is the gold that blends with the eucalypt green to form the green and gold around which Australians so willingly unite. Because wattle springs organically from the land it bonds Australians as a people to the land. As a living expression of land, wattle links us to the earliest occupation of the Australian continent. Indigenous Australians used wattle for thousands of years as a season marker (a sign that the whales were coming), as a source of food, and the raw material of hunting and sound instruments. This is part of wattle’s wonderful heritage as a unifying symbol of land, people and the nation — a symbol that has no unpleasant baggage.

Wattle is a broad and inclusive symbol. It grows in all parts of Australia, differing varieties flowering throughout the year. It links all Australians, from the first to the newest at citizenship ceremonies. It touches all levels of society, from very early pioneers and World War 1 diggers (buried with a customary sprig of wattle) to victims of the Bali bombings and the nation’s best who are honoured with Order of Australia awards with insignia designed around the wattle flower.

The wattle flower symbolises an egalitarian, classless, free citizenry. The democracy of wattles – the fact that they grow in all states – was the overpowering reason why the wattle and not the waratah was chosen as the floral emblem in the early twentieth century. In September 1981, historian Manning Clark wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“I love the spring. It means the wattle comes out again. It is a symbol of everything one loves about Australia and the ideal of the uniqueness of Australia. To me every spring holds out the hope that it won’t be long before Australia is completely independent [but I also] share Henry Lawson’s view that blood should never stain the wattle.”

In other words, independence of course, but peacefully achieved.

Wattle is a metaphor for innocence and hope, the constant promise of rebirth, that simple and powerful beauty of the wattle flower — indigenous, Australian, unsullied by the memory of war and destruction. So, when the blaze of wattle lights up the Australian landscape each year, let’s all remember that the wattle is a symbol of our land that unites us all.

No place for Princes in modern Australia

Yet again, monarchists are up in arms after the Duke of Edinburgh Awards have removed Prince Philip’s monogram from all their logos.

Prince Philip's logo - gone

IN AN EFFORT to maintain relevance with the youth of Australia the Duke of Edinburgh Awards have removed Prince Philip’s monogram from all of their logos and replaced it with the strongest symbol of popular sovereignty, the shape of the Australian continent.

Again, the Chicken Little’s in the monarchist coop are again crying foul and ‘republicanism by stealth’. They’re running around − again − clucking that the sky will fall in.

Why?

Because the Duke of Edinburgh Awards in Australia have removed Prince Philip’s royal monogram from all of their logos and replaced it with the strongest symbol of popular sovereignty — the shape of the Australian continent.

The removal of Prince Philip’s monogram follows on the heels of the removal in 2012 of the oath to the Queen by Girl Guides Australia something Scouts Australia had done over ten years ago. It appears the youth movements of Australia understand that, to increase membership, they have to appeal to multicultural Australia rather than a by-gone British Australia. Overt symbols of royalty have no place in twenty-first century Australia and perhaps nor do any references to the British crown.

On 1 September 1956, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband of the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II helped to found the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award (commonly abbreviated DofE),  in order to give young people “a sense of responsibility to themselves and their communities”.
It is an award given for completing a program of activities: volunteering service to individuals or the community; improving physical activities; developing practical and social skills and personal interests; and planning, training for and completion of an adventurous journey. This can be undertaken by anyone aged 14 to 24.

Over 57 years, the DofE has spread to all Commonwealth countries. However, Australia is the only country where Prince Philip’s monogram has been removed from the award’s logo. If it was in preparation for his inevitable demise – at 92 he may not be long for this world – then this is not necessary, as succession planning appears to be in place, with his son, Prince Edward, taking a keen interest in the organisation. And even if this was true, then why has no other Commonwealth country followed suit? It’s more likely the DofE people have looked at the same membership rate projections as the Girl Guides and realised that, to remain relevant and viable in an Australian setting,, they must become multicultural with a focus on service to this country.

On a separate, but related, note, I’ve recently come to realise my own republicanism may be partly founded in my family’s strong scouting tradition. My mother was a cub Scout leader for over 20 years and my father celebrates, in 2013, his 60^th year in the Scout Movement.

Don Davies

For 50 years, my father has served as a Scout Leader in both Townsville and Charters Towers. Having joined Cutheringa Scout Group, Townsville, as a boy in 1953 he passed through the Senior Scout and Rover ranks before becoming a Rover Leader and a Scout Leader in Townsville. When he and my mother relocated to Charters Towers in 1973 he immediately transferred his energies to the Richmond Hill Scout Group. He had no idea, at the time, he would still be involved in the Scout movement 40 years later. When asked what his ongoing motivation was as a Scout leader he reflected:

“Service is the scouting motto, service to family, to friends, the community and country. Service is the price we pay for our time on Earth.”

Lord Robert Baden-Powell

Growing up in a north Queensland Scouting family, the concepts of active and informed citizenship and service to your community and country were instilled in me and my brothers from a very young age.

However there was never any talk of loyalty to the Queen. The “duty to the Queen” reference in the Scout Promise was never emphasised. In fact, it was almost a no-go area. Ironically I think I may have grown up in a republican Scouting family. Not in any overt way but through an emphasis on service to your own community and country.

My father and all the other Scout movement leaders I remember growing up in the 1970s and 1980s were all men skilled in bush craft with a strong sense of community service. Although I do recall a print of a young Queen Elizabeth II on a horse above the Scout Hut door, there were never any discussions about fealty to the British monarch. Even mentions of Lord Baden-Powell and the beginnings of Scouting were rare. For these men, their focus appeared more with the boys of their community and service to their country. Flowing through them was a strong Australian nationalism founded in a love of the Australian bush not for a Queen ‘over the seas’.

Over the years, my father has seen a lot of changes in the Scout movement, including opening up membership to girls as well as boys and changes in uniform.

In the early 2000s, Scouts Australia made a conscious effort to modernise the Scout movement by scrapping its khaki uniform in favour of navy blue shorts and hat. This was based on research that the Scout movement was seen as militaristic and this was maybe something that was stopping kids either joining Scouts or staying in Scouts. The uniform change worked as Scout numbers around Australia have risen since then.

Richard Miller, Scouts Australia

Since the publication of Scouting for Boys in 1908, all Scouts and Guides around the world have taken a Scout (or Guide) Promise to live up to ideals of the movement. The Scout Promise has varied slightly over time and from country to country. Richard Miller, national chief executive of Scouts Australia, explained that in 2001 the Scout Promise was changed so that an individual had the option to omit reference to the Queen.

Miller said:

“As far as the promise is concerned, in 2001 we introduced an alternative promise which included a commitment to Australia. We answered to the needs of our members at a time when they wanted an option.”

Similarly, the change to the Girl Guides of Australia 40-year-old pledge to Queen and to God involved a survey of all 28,000 guides and leaders on changing their promise.

After 18 months of intensive consultation of Australia’s largest volunteer girls group, most of them girls between the ages of 10 and 14, it was agreed to drop the pledge of allegiance. The refreshed Girl Guides’ promise has its 28,000-strong group now promising to do their best “to be true to myself and develop my beliefs” rather than to “do my duty to God, to serve the Queen and my country“.
NSW Guides Commissioner Belinda Allen said:

“We are very much hopeful with the new wording to the promise that we’ll be seen as more inclusive and modern and relevant organisation and many more people will like to join us.”

In the new Girl Guide promise, ‘loyal’ has been replaced with ‘respect’ and ‘helpful’ replaced with ‘considerate’.

The old Guide Promise:

I promise that I will do my best:
To do my duty to God, to serve the Queen and my country;
To help other people; and
To keep the Guide Law.

The new Guide Promise:

I promise that I will do my best:
To be true to myself and develop my beliefs
To serve my community and Australia
And live by the Guide Law.

The modernisation of the Girl Guide pledge reflects Girl Guides desire to move with the times in the understanding that Australia is changing; it speaks of this nation seeking its own identity as part of being Australian.

The removal of the personal monogram of the oldest living descendant of Queen Victoria from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in Australia is another example of how the youth of Australia do not want to be confronted by any requirement to display fealty to royalty — a concept that not only has no place in modern Australia, but has actively decreased youth membership of Scouts Australia and Girl Guides Australia.

The Chicken Little’s in the monarchist coop have no reason to cluck on about ‘republicanism by stealth’. The significant changes occurring within Australia’s youth organisation’s is a reflection of their aspirations and values. For them, allegiance resides within their community and their country.

It seems my father and my hardy old Scout Leaders from north Queensland had the right idea all the time — it’s all about service to community and country, which at its core is grounded in the republican concept of virtue. It is here, within Australia, that virtue lays — not in a feudal castle over 9,000km away on the other side of the world.

Project Republic

It’s time for some straight talk about Australia’s future. We need a head of state who shares a genuine affinity with our country. True independence does not require us to relinquish affection for the Queen or downplay excitement about a royal birth or wedding. Rather it is a chance for national renewal, and to lend an Australian dignity to the highest office in the land. In short: to decide what kind of country we want to live in.

The Australian Republican Movement (ARM) has recently begun a new campaign aimed at restarting a conversation with Australians about who we are and what we can be.  The campaign, designed to get the republic back on the agenda, was successfully trialled in Tasmania, where it received the endorsement of the leaders of the three major parties, and was recently launched in New South Wales to a 350-strong crowd at a fundraiser with Malcolm Turnbull, Tom Keneally and Jane Caro.

Republic Clubs are forming on university campuses throughout Australia, with fundraisers, forums and stalls being held or scheduled in all states. With support from Tim Fischer to Malcolm Turnbull, Wayne Swan and Christine Milne, the ARM has been delighted with the public endorsements of the campaign across the political divide.

Benjamin Thomas Jones

Mark McKenna

On 3 June 2013 the ARM hosted the book launch of Project Republic, edited by Benjamin Thomas Jones and Mark McKenna, published by Black Inc Books. The book was officially launched at Parliament House, Canberra by then Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan and Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull. Featuring forewords by Malcolm Turnbull and Wayne Swan, Project Republic unites a range of passionate Australian voices to show why Australia must become a republic – and how we can get there from here. Contributors include Henry Reynolds, Thomas Keneally, Larissa Behrendt, John Hirst, Julian Morrow, Helen Irving, Mark Tredinnick, John Warhurst, David Morris, George Williams, Joy McCann, Erika Smith, Anthony Dillon, Paul Pickering, James Curran, David Donovan and George Winterton.  

At the book launch National Director of the Australian Republican Movement, David Morris, signalled a new, grass roots push to get the nation’s unfinished business and great bipartisan project – an Australian republic – on the agenda.

“Some say ‘just come up with a model, it’s all about how you select the Head of State, fix that and the rest will follow’. It’s the old top down approach that worked so well, never”, said Mr Morris.

“The Australian Republican Movement has learned from the past. We have learned from repeated examples of political leaders who thought they had clever policy initiatives all stitched up but then couldn’t implement them because they hadn’t adequately consulted. So we are listening to what Australians say.

“A fully independent Australia, a republic, has to be a grass roots celebration of being Australian. It must not be imposed from above, as the British monarchy is currently imposed upon us with no broad public consent. Something as fundamental as who we are and how we want to be seen in the world, has to start with a good old fashioned Aussie barbecue conversation.”

We need to turn the republic debate upside down, putting people first.

Here's a special offer to Australian Republican Movement members, a discount price  on the book everyone is talking about, Project Republic.

Happy third birthday IA — the voice of an independent Australia

Independent Australia turned three yesterday. I remember how three years ago the first article was published. This was the day after the night of the ‘long knives’ when Julia Gillard rolled Kevin Rudd. As Rudd was being politically assassinated, Independent Australia emerged as an independent Australian voice.

Since those early days, Independent Australia has become the premier republican voice in Australia. Within the space of three years Independent Australia has become the modern day version of The Bulletin in its heyday of the 1880s and 1890s.

Australia has a long tradition of independent, republican journalism. This tradition was first established in newspapers such as the People’s Advocate and the Empire of the 1840s and 1850s, supported in The Age in the 1870s and 1880s, and a constant theme in publications in the 1890s such as the Newcastle Radical, the Wagga Hummer, the Cairns Advocate, the Melbourne Tocsin, the Hobart Clipper, and John Norton’s Truth. But it was in the pages of the Bulletin in the 1880s and 1890s where the flowering of republican ideals can be seen to emerge.

Over the past three years, the task of documenting our shared republican history has been taken on by writers such as senior correspondent Barry Everingham, Dr Benjamin Thomas Jones, Lewis Holden, Scott Crawford, Dr Klass Woldring, John Skene, Robert Vose, Roy McKeen, Yves Sanz, Alan Austin, Kelly Butterworth, Sarah Brasch, Len Liddelow as well, of course, as myself and David Donovan himself. But there is still a great deal more to document. Australia’s republican past has a rich and deep seam. It’s important to remember though that our future is inextricably linked to our shared past.

Independent Australia believes in a fully and truly independent Australia, a nation that determines its own future, a nation that protects its citizens, its environment and its future. A country that is fair and free.

Interestingly, 100 years ago the then Labor Prime Minister Andrew Fisher was attempting to ‘Australianise’ our government system and national symbols. Fisher took a keen interest in the complex question of national identity. Home-grown symbols, he knew in his heart, were essential for a nation so young. The fragile cultural fabric needed connections, some stitching, and some leadership.

Among other initiatives, such as the introduction of the Australian penny in 1911, Fisher had the Australian Coat of Arms (designed by the College of Arms in England) remodelled to give it a more Australian flavour by having wattle included as the decoration surrounding the Coat of Arms. 100 years later David Donovan continues to fight the good fight of Fisher’s to create an independent Australia.

It has been a long time since Australia has had such a strong republican voice as Independent Australia. Australia’s republican voice has been lost for a long time. There have certainly been many writers, artists, academics, and politicians who have actively advocated for an Australian republic over the past century, however they have not had a home where they can all shelter under the same roof. Independent Australia has become that space, a republican space — a republican civic space where republicans and others can debate the issues that are important to our political and civic future. Republican voices now have a home. All families need a home. Thanks to David Donovan and all the contributors to Independent Australia, the republican tribe can begin to look around and see who they are.

Congratulations to Managing Editor David Donovan who has nurtured his baby to this milestone and here’s to a long, independent life — and remember, every tribe needs a home.

IA managing editor David Donovan — at home.

Vale Hazel Hawke - First Among Equals

Hazel Hawke was a great Australian ― and a great Australian republican.

On Thursday 23 May 2013, Hazel Hawke AO (born 20 July 1929), ex-wife of former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke from 1983 to 1991, died peacefully at the age of 83 after succumbing to complications of dementia. Tributes from across the political spectrum have poured in for Mrs Hawke, who shared the highs and lows of the political roller-coaster life with her husband. The former First Lady has been remembered as a wonderful, gutsy and compassionate Australian, who touched the lives of everyday people.

Portrait of Hazel Hawke by Sally Robinson. Source: John.Curtin.edu.au

Prime Minister Julia Gillard paid tribute to the former first lady:

“Ordinary Australians saw the best of themselves in Hazel – many women of her generation will feel they have lost a friend. Hazel was one of those rare people who are liked and respected in equal measure. Her warmth and generosity of spirit in success were only matched by her courage and dignity in adversity. We have lost a wonderful Australian.”

During an interview on 7.30 (23/5/2013), Leigh Sales recalled that during an interview with her daughter, Sue Pieters-Hawke, about 18 months ago, she had said that she thought her mother’s enduring legacy was “that she appealed to our better judgment”. In response, Hazel Hawke’s friend Wendy McCarthy said:

“She brings out our better selves. She does. She has that capacity to make people feel they can live up, they can be – they can find their noble purpose in a way. There’s something about their inner soul and they feel able to talk – they felt able to talk to her about it without feeling silly. It’s a very unusual and rare capacity. And Hazel could talk to anyone, anywhere and listen to them and have that sense of the better self come out.”

It was this connection with the people of Australia that resulted in her successful election to the 1998 Constitutional Convention as a NSW Australian Republican Movement delegate.

The 1998 Constitutional Convention was probably the high tide mark for republicanism in Australia. In February 1998, 152 delegates gathered in Canberra to decide how a new Australian head of state would replace the British monarchy, which had been at the core of the Australian Constitution for 97 years.
At the beginning of the Constitutional Convention, there was an overt assumption that the republic was going to happen. Even the then Prime Minister, the staunch monarchist John Howard grudgingly conceded, when he opened the two-week convention, that history may be on the republican’s side. Howard said:

“In my view, the only argument in substance in favour of an Australian republic is the symbolism of Australia sharing its legal head of state with a number of other nations is no longer appropriate.”

It seemed the central question of whether Australia should become a republic at all was hardly to be a feature at the Constitutional Convention and that it had all been decided by consensus already. More than half the delegates were committed republicans, including politicians, church leaders, sports stars and household names such as Janet Holmes-a-Court, Australia’s most powerful businesswoman, and Poppy King, a 25-year-old entrepreneur known as the ‘lipstick queen’’ because of her multi-million dollar cosmetics empire.

Prime Minister John Howard had promised that if the Constitutional Convention could agree on a republican model by the time it wound up on 13 February 1998, the government would put such a model to the Australian people in a referendum in 1999. If the referendum passed, then Australia would become a republic in time for its centenary in January 2001. Unfortunately it was during the next two weeks that the cracks within the republican groups over the key question of how an Australian president should be appointed, and what powers the office should have, began to emerge. It was these cracks that eventually brought about the division within the YES campaign and the ultimate defeat of the republican referendum on 6 November 1999.

Framed certificate conferring life membership of the Australian Republican Movement to Hazel Hawke. (Source: John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library.)

During 1999, Hazel Hawke was enlisted by the Australian Republican Movement to promote the YES campaign to older Australians. She was guardedly optimistic about the referendum outcome. “But I’m not convinced that we’ll win,” she said.

In October 1999, she issued a warning:

It would be “just plain dopey” for Australians to retain the monarchy at next month’s republic referendum. Mrs Hawke said Australia would be seen by outsiders as irresponsible if the NO campaign was successful on 6 November. The ex-wife of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke said it was inappropriate for the Queen of England to remain Australia’s head of state and she urged parents to consider whether they would want to deny their children the chance to aspire to be Australian president. It’s much more appropriate to have an Australian figurehead.

Although Hazel Hawke had a strong credibility rating with the Australian people, there was a need at the time for a lot more women as republican leaders. Unfortunately, the ARM did not use women in the same way as the NO campaign did with Kerry Jones and Pauline Hanson, with Hazel Hawke not having as high a public profile on day-to-day issues about the republic.

The republican movement is feeling the loss of such a strong republican stalwart and offers the greatest sympathy and respect to her family and friends for their loss.

Vale Hazel Hawke. A great Australian ― and a great Australian republican.

Labour Day is here to stay

The Queensland Government is trying to kill off Labour Day by moving the public holiday from its traditional May date to October, however it will be business as usual for the Queensland union movement on Sunday, 5 May 2013.



THE FIRST WEEKEND in May has been of major cultural and historical significance for the union movement in Queensland ever since the state’s first Labour Day procession took place in Barcaldine on 1 May 1891 and the Labour Day public holiday has been celebrated by workers in Queensland on the first Monday in May since 1901. It is deeply ingrained in Queensland’s history as a day to recognise workers’ rights.

During 2011, there had been widespread consultation on changing the holiday system and it was agreed that Labour Day would remain in May and the Queen’s Birthday public holiday would move from June to October.

At the time, Premier Anna Bligh said all holidays, except for the Queen’s Birthday, marked significant dates and were punctuated with official ceremonies or significance:

“Unlike other public holidays, it’s not celebrated on a date that is particularly meaningful.”

The Queen’s birthday public holiday originated in 1912 to observe the birthday of King George V on 3 June. Over the years, Queensland, along with most other states, has continued to observe the Queen’s birthday in June even though the actual birthday of Queen Elizabeth II is 21 April. In Western Australia, the Queen’s birthday public holiday is held in either September or October. The Queen’s birthday is observed as a mark of respect to the sovereign but is not widely celebrated in community events like other public holidays.

Other public holidays are on dates of significance. Australia Day (26 January). Tick. Anzac Day (25 April). Tick. Labour Day (1 May). Tick. Easter. Christmas. Tick. Tick. Queen’s Birthday…errrr? It’s not celebrated on the correct date and there is no official ceremony or community engagement around it. However, all this was thrown out the window last year when legislation was passed through the Queensland Parliament by the LNP Newman Government to move the Labour Day public holiday to the first Monday in October and the Queen’s Birthday public holiday back to its previous June timing.


The history of Labour Day in Australia spans over 150 years. It is an important annual event that commemorates the granting of the eight-hour working day for Australians and remembers those who struggled and succeeded to ensure decent and fair working conditions in Australia. During the mid to late 1800s, the working day was long and arduous, where some employees would work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week. Many Australians saw the need for better working conditions and in the 1850s there was a strong push for this. On 21 April 1856, stonemasons at the University of Melbourne marched to Parliament House to push for an eight-hour working day. An agreement with employers for a 48-hour week was eventually reached and Australian workers welcomed the new eight-hour day. A victory march was held on 12 May 1856 that year and each year after that. In 1856, the new work regulations were recognized in New South Wales, followed by Queensland in 1858 and South Australia in 1873. In 1874, Tasmania joined the other states in adopting the shorter eight-hour working day. In 1879, the Victorian Government made one further step towards better conditions for employees by proclaiming a paid public holiday that year. However, while a change was made to the hours worked each day, the five day work week we enjoy today took almost a century longer to be adopted finally in 1948.

In Queensland, the first Labour Day celebration took place in Brisbane on 16 March 1861 and was essentially a celebration by a small number of skilled building workers who had recently achieved an eight-hour working day. The date of the event was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the first workers achieving the eight hour day in Queensland. For more than 20 years, the bulk of workers who did not enjoy an eight hour working day were excluded from the celebrations and the focus was on celebrating trade union achievements. The small number of elite Queensland trade unionists who participated in the eight hour day celebrations showed little sympathy for their fellow workers who laboured in excess of eight hours.
The first to follow the example of the Australian workers were the Americans. In 1886, they decided that May 1 should be the day of universal work stoppage. On this day, 200,000 of them left their work and demanded the eight hour day. The historic strike of 1 May 1886 was a culmination of a concerted struggle. Chicago was the major industrial centre of the USA. Police attacked striking workers from the McCormack Harvester Co., killing six.


On 4 May 1886, at a demonstration in Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality, a bomb exploded in the middle of a crowd of police killing eight of them. The police arrested eight anarchist trade unionists claiming they threw the bombs. To this day, the subject is still one of controversy. The question remains whether the bomb was thrown by the workers at the police or whether one of the police’s own agent provocateurs dropped it in their haste to retreat from charging workers.

In what was to become one of the most infamous show trials in America in the nineteenth century, but certainly not to be the last of such trials against radical workers, the State of Illinois tried the anarchist workingmen for fighting for their rights as much as being the actual bomb throwers. Whether the anarchist workers were guilty or innocent was irrelevant — they were agitators, fomenting revolution and stirring up the working class, and they had to be taught a lesson. Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph Fischer were found guilty and executed by the State of Illinois.

In Paris in 1889, the International Workingmen’s Association (the First International) declared 1 May an international working-class holiday in commemoration of the 1886 Haymarket Martyrs. The red flag became the symbol of the blood of working-class martyrs in their battle for worker’s rights.
In light of the labour movement’s successful push for an eight-hour day, a large May Day meeting was held in Melbourne on 1 May 1890. Other Australian capital cities also held May Day meeting at the same time. On 1 May 1890, the Brisbane Workers editorial stated:

May Day, this is our May Day, the by-gone jubilation of our forefathers for the reconquering by the bright sunshine of the bitter northern winter, the new-born celebration of the passing of the workers’ winter of discontent. In Germany, in Austria, in Belgium, in France, all through Europe, in the United Kingdom and in the great English speaking republic across the Pacific, millions of workers are gathering at this hour to voice the demands of Labor for fair conditions of laboring. Never in all history was there such a meeting.

The spirit of the activists and early workers organisers is summed up in Bernard O’Dowd’s poem, May Day where he calls for Australians to stand up united and maintain their rights to an eight-hour work day.

Come Jack, our place is with the ruck
On the open road today,
Not with the tepid “footpath sneak”
Or with the wise who stop away.

A straggling, tame procession, perhaps,
A butt for burgess scorn;
Its flags are ragged sentiments,
And its music’s still unborn.

Though none respectable are here,
And trim officials ban,
Our duty, Jack, is not with them,
But here with hope and Man.

The Labour Day date was moved from May to the second Monday in March in some parts of Australia after World War II. Since 1948, Labour Day in Western Australia has been observed on the first Monday in March and marks the granting of the eight hour working day to Western Australians. For a large section of the Brisbane labour movement, it remained important that the Labour Day celebrations be changed to enable participation by all Queensland workers and that the date of the procession from the traditional one on 1 March to 1 May. The main arguments for changing the date of the celebrations was to make them part of the international campaign, begun by the International Labour Congress in 1889, to make 1 May an official workers holiday around the world. This campaign was given a major boost when, on 1 May 1891, hundreds of striking bush workers held Australia’s first May Day procession through the streets of Barcaldine where their leaders wore blue sashes and they carried banners and the Eureka flag. It was reported that cheers were given for “the eight-hour day”.

Henry Lawson wrote “Freedom on the Wallaby” to mark the day:

So we must fly a rebel flag
As others did before us,
And we must sing a rebel song
And join in rebel chorus.
We’ll make the tyrants feel the sting
O’those that they would throttle;
They needn’t say the fault is ours
If blood should stain the wattle.

From May 1893, the holding of Labour Day and May Day in Queensland has proceeded hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, over time, the reasons for shifting Labour Day so that it corresponded to May Day have been forgotten. But, equally clearly, the now largely forgotten campaign to link the two had made Labour Day in Queensland a significant occasion, when not just the eight-hour working day is celebrated, but also the international solidarity of labour. In fact, Queensland unionists, until now, were almost alone in celebrating Labour Day on or around May Day, as most other states still time their celebrations to coincide with anniversaries of eight-hour day victories.

Labour Day, like Anzac Day, is a day when we remember the sacrifices our forebears made — the mateship, the loyalty and the determination to build and protect the freedom and rights we now enjoy. Both are also occasions when we recognise the ongoing struggles of today and thank those standing beside us in the fray. Today, we celebrate those workers and union delegates who stand alongside their mates and colleagues to preserve and better the working conditions of all Australians. For like Anzac Day, Labour Day is – above and beyond its historical significance – a day in which all Australians can celebrate our egalitarian society, our innate sense of fairness and equity, and our willingness to campaign side by side for a better world.

It is the day we celebrate the winding back of the exploitation and oppressive working hours that were the norm in the early nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution. It is a day we remember the efforts of the labour movement which brought us the eight hour day and over the ensuing decades of struggle such basic advances as minimum wage levels, safety in the workplace and the right – bar a brief return to the industrial relations Dark Ages during the Howard era – to bargain as a collective.

Callow fanatical monarchist Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie is reported to have used doctored survey figures to justify moving Labour Day rather than the irrelevant Queen’s Birthday holiday.

For Labour Day is not a celebration of militant trade unionism. It is not a conga-line of left-wing ratbags winding their way through the streets chanting slogans calling for the downfall of capitalism. Labour Day, particularly in today’s world – where ordinary hard-working people are increasingly left bleeding on the economic roadside from collateral damage inflicted by the global recession – it is about family, freedom, and a fair go. It is about empowerment in a world where individuals still too often have little control over their own destiny when it comes to the workplace.

So celebrate Labour Day. Celebrate trade unions, freedom of association, vigorous debate and working families. For that is the sum of us.

(This is an edited version of the 2013 Alex Macdonald Lecture Labour Day: Family, freedom and a fair go. The origins to Queensland’s Labour Day and the recent shift of date to be delivered to the Brisbane Labour History Association on 1 May 2013 by Dr Glenn Davies)

Face of the Republic is back

It’s been twenty years since Paul Keating announced the establishment of the Republic Advisory Committee on 28 April 1993 and appointed Malcolm Turnbull as its chair. Turnbull is back campaigning again for an Australian republic and on 10 May 2013 will speak at an ARM dinner


Even though Malcolm Turnbull has played no active role in the Australian Republican Movement since the 1999 republican referendum defeat, for many Australians he is still the face of the call for an Australian as Head of State. It is his name that many ordinary Australians first mention when the republican argument is brought up. On 10 May 2013, Turnbull will have star billing at an ARM fund-raising dinner at Lilyfield, Sydney, where diners will witness a ”conversation about our Australian identity” between him and Geoff Gallop, the current chairman of ARM and a former Labor premier of Western Australia.

Throughout most of the 1990s Turnbull led and funded the Australian Republican Movement. However, after the 1999 republican referendum defeat and his resignation as ARM national chairman, Turnbull has kept a low profile on the republican issue. In 2004, he was elected as the Liberal Federal Member for Wentworth. It has been one of the curious matchings of recent federal politics that on the Federal Liberal front bench is Turnbull and one of his main opponents, the former head of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, Tony Abbott.

One can only assume that since he was first elected, Turnbull has been required to never acknowledge publicly his republican support in order to appear a loyal member of the Abbott team. However since he delivered the 2012 ‘George Winterton Lecture’ at the University of Western Australia in September 2012 titled “Republic Virtues: Truth, Leadership and Responsibility”, Turnbull appears to have decided to make his republican position public again, and in so doing differentiate himself from Abbott in the Battle for Ideas. Predictably, the Australian’s for Constitutional Monarchy national convener David Flint immediately went on the attack breathlessly wanting to know

Why has Malcolm Turnbull decided to demonstrate to the world that the frontbench is divided on the fundamental question of a politicians’ republic‘?

The answer is obvious. The movement for an Australian republic is again on the rise. Malcolm Turnbull can see that the ARM’s grassroots national campaign is hitting a chord across Australia and he wants to be a part of it.

On 13 March 1993, Paul Keating won “the sweetest victory of all” when he was elected as Prime Minister of Australia with a mandate to pursue his program for an Australian republic.

In his Engagement. Australia faces the Asia-Pacific (2000) Keating described how he

…put the republic on the political agenda by proposing the constitutional change in the policy speech for the 1993 election, For a party seeking so fundamental a change, this was the only and proper thing to do. It allowed the community to consider the subject before casting its vote.

In the policy speech, after his election win he promised to set up a bipartisan committee to examine the complex constitutional issues involved and for it to report to the government.

On 28 April 1993, at the annual dinner of the Evatt Foundation, Keating announced the establishment of a nine-member Republic Advisory Committee:

…a broadly-based committee of eminent Australians, including representatives of the States, to develop a discussion paper which considers the options for a Federal Republic of Australia … it would be the intention that as a result of this committee’s deliberations and the public discussion that would follow, the Australian people would be in a position to decide by referendum later in the decade whether Australia should become a republic by the year 2001.

The terms of reference of the Republic Advisory Committee were to to examine the constitutional and legal issues that would arise were Australia to become a republic. The Committee was asked to consider issues such as:

ARM chair Geoff Gallop

• A name for a new elected head of state

• The method of selection for the head of state

• What powers he or she should possess

• The constitutional amendments and legal changes required to replace the Queen of Australia and Her Representative, the Governor-General of Australia by an elected head of state.

The nine-member bipartisan Republican Advisory Committee was appointed in May 1993 and consulted widely around Australia. The RAC was chaired by Malcolm Turnbull and included Nick Greiner and Naomi Dougal, who were prominent members of the Liberal Party, as well as constitutional experts such as Professor George Winterton and Dr John Hirst. Between May and October 1993 the RAC toured around town halls and community centres throughout Australia listening to the views of ordinary Australians.
One hundred years before the Republic Advisory Committee began stumping around the country Edmund Barton was holding meetings throughout New South Wales and with border Victorians to keep alive the idea of Federation. By the end of May 1893 there were 15 branches of the Federation League in the valley of the Murray. Quick & Garran recorded the Australian Federation League pledged,

…to advance the cause of Australian Federation by an organisation of citizens owning no class distinction or party influence, and using its best energies to assist Parliamentary action, from whatever source proceeding, calculated to further the common aim of Australian patriotism.

Malcolm Turbull

Barton’s focus was on federation of the Australian colonies and succeeded in making the federation movement appear popular. The Federal Leagues were to occupy the representative place of “the people” in the federation debates.

The ARM’s 2013 strategy, is to build support for a republic from the grassroots by talking about national identity, rather than focusing on how to select the head of state. The current campaign has been touring around the country as did the Republican Advisory Committee in 1993, as well as Edmund Barton in 1892 and 1893 when he was trying to keep alive the idea of Federation in the days after the 1891 National federal Convention. Edmund Barton’s actions in keeping alive the federation movement eventually saw him elected as the first Prime Minister of Australia.

Perhaps Malcolm Turnbull’s actions in helping to keep alive the republican movement will see him become the first President of the Republic of Australia.

Uni clubs stir up talk of a Republic

Republic Clubs are forming at Universities across Australia, refuting claims young Australians are uninterested in an Australian Republic.

IN RECENT DAYS, new Republic Clubs have held stalls on university campuses at Australian National University, University of Western Australia and University of Queensland, where hundreds of students have shown a renewed enthusiasm for an Australian republic. Republic Clubs are also forming in coming weeks at the University of Western Sydney, University of Adelaide, Macquarie University, University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney.

ARM chair Geoff Gallop visiting the UWA Republic Club in Perth on Friday, 22 February 2013.

The university “O Week” season has seen the establishment of many new Republic Clubs and the generation of a great deal of interest. 

Sera Yilmaz, for instance, is a young woman who wants to make a difference for Australia. She represented Australia at the Model United Nations at Harvard in 2012, has just graduated in Law and is pursuing postgraduate studies on equity in Australia’s immigration program. And, like students across Australia this month, she is setting up a Republic Club at her university, the University of Western Sydney.

“I am passionate about Australia. We have such a strong sense of fairness, such a vibrant, multicultural society. We have such potential in the future. That’s why I believe Australia should celebrate its identity as a republic.”

Sera is chair of the new University of Western Sydney Republic Club and will be signing up new members at “O Week” stalls at Parramatta, Bankstown, Campbelltown and Penrith campuses, 25-28 February 2013.

On Friday, 25 January 2013, the University of Queensland Republic Club held an Australia Day party in the Great Court as its inaugural AGM. Ably led by Jacqueline Rodgers, an undergraduate student in International Relations/Chinese, the meeting included the official adoption of the club constitution and voting for executive positions. Despite it pouring rain and still being university holidays, they managed a fantastic turnout and easily made quorum for affiliation.

On 20 February 2013, the UQ Republic Club had a Market Day Stall during O’Week which attracted 300 visitors, students, staff and MPs, with overwhelming support for an Australian republic.

On 29 December, 2012 it was announced that, with the help of the new VPs for Campus Culture, the UQ Student Union had approved the application for UQRA to become an affiliated member of Clubs & Societies. This was the final hurdle in a long battle to have the UQRA re-affiliated at UQ.

The University of Queensland campus has been involved in republican movement activity since the early 1990s. On 12 December 1993, the Australian Republican Movement was launched in Brisbane at the Sheraton Hotel. A public meeting was held on 21 April 1994 at the Abel Smith Lecture Theatre at UQ and the Inaugural Dinner of the Queensland branch of the ARM was held on 3 December 1994 at Cromwell College, University of Queensland.

On 4 October 1994, the newly formed UQ Republican Association invited the Federal Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch to address the issue at the Axon Room. More than 50 people gathered inside and outside to hear the Attorney-General speak. This had been organised by the inaugural UQRA President, Johanna Sing. In 1994, she was an eighteen year old Arts/Law student who had long been interested in politics. At seventeen, she had been the youth representative of the ARM in Queensland. She was present at the launch in December 1993 and spoke at the first public meeting of the Queensland Branch at UQ in April 1994. In September 1994, she attended the Young Leaders’ Conference in Melbourne at which representatives of all political parties and various interest groups debated many issues, including the republic. By O’Week 1996, the UQ Republican Association was established on the UQ campus.

Throughout the 1990s and first half of 2000s, the ARM was a presence on UQ campus, particularly during O’Week. This all changed with the student union elections in 2008. From this time on the ‘Fresh Party’ actively stopped the registration of the UQ Republican Club. However, in late 2012, this changed when the LNP aligned ‘Fresh Party’ was investigated.

Jacqueline Rodgers: new President, UQ Republic Club in centre

The 2012 UQ student election sparked protests and accusations of rigging after ‘Fresh’, which includes mostly Liberal National Party members, was accused of rigging the election by changing the rules on registering a party, without giving their opponents enough time to comply with the changes. There was widespread protesting by students over the move. In September 2012, University of Queensland ordered an independent audit, which investigated the finances, regulations and processes of the union after concerns were raised about the ‘transparency’ of the student union election process won by the incumbent Fresh party. The findings were delivered to the UQ student union on Wednesday, 30 January 2013 with a request for a response by 22 February.

UQ vice-chancellor Professor Peter Hoj stated:

“We believe the audit findings should be communicated to the public by the union soon and no later than early March”.

Student politics has long been the playground of budding party apparatchiks keen to try out dirty tricks, however now that the future LNP campaign managers have been removed and a level-playing field appears to have returned the students of 2013 have the opportunity to engage with the ideas presented to them by the UQRA.

It’s time for a new conversation about Australia, our identity and our responsibility to take the future in our hands as a fully independent nation. It is heartening to see young Australians all around Australia wrestling with these ideas. To continue this conversation go to Young Republic Student Forum on Facebook.