Time to reverse the conservative Restoration

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. Will the Palaszczuk Labor Government reverse the conservative Restoration?

ON 9 JULY 2012, I reflected in Independent Australia on the first 100 days since the Newman LNP Government was elected in Queensland.

At the time I wrote:

‘It’s worth remembering the ALP interregnum came to power in 1989 with the execution of the Bjelke-Petersen Government. Just over 22 years later, the conservative Restoration has begun moving the ideological clock back by changing Senior Counsel back to Queen’s Counsel and revisiting moving the Labour Day public holiday to late in the year rather than the Queen’s Birthday holiday.’

At the end of this article, I wondered what the next 100 days of the conservative Restoration would bring to Queensland:

‘Perhaps all state schools will be required to hang a picture of the Queen in their school hall (or principal’s office) or the playing of the royal national anthem will resume in cinemas before the feature. Goodness knows.’

As the Newman LNP Government came close to the end of their first year in office, it seemed the ideological clock had continued to spin backwards. On 14 January 2013, I looked back on how the high tea warriors of the LNP Newman Government had forced their love of monarchy and all its trappings on the people of Queensland after just under a year.



Queen's Birthday - A Good Day for the Australian Republic Movement - image courtesy Illustrated Shorts

In 2012, the Queen’s Birthday holiday in June was rebadged in Queensland as the ‘Queen’s Diamond Jubilee holiday’. The 2012 British bank holiday was held a week before the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee public holiday was held in Queensland. On 4 June 2012, a 1000 strong boat procession floated up the Thames River.

In July 2012, the newly-minted Queensland LNP Government changed the Queensland Government logo back to the Queensland Coat-of-Arms. The logo was introduced in April 2000 by the Beattie Government and was designed by architect Michael Bryce, the husband of Australia's previous Governor General, Dame Quentin Bryce. It was commonly referred to by public servants as the "Beattie burger", because the relaxed style of the logo looked like a hamburger with several chips or french fries sitting beside it.

The official opening on 3 August 2012 of Brisbane’s new Supreme and District Courts by the Attorney-General, Premier, Governor and Chief Justice saw the new court complex named Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law.

The Newman LNP Queensland Government showed its monarchist colours again with the announcement by then Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie at the Supreme Court’s annual Christmas Greetings event in Brisbane on Wednesday, 12 December 2012 that Senior Counsel (SC) would replace Queen’s Counsel (QC). Senior barristers were offered a ‘choice’ to call themselves ‘Queen’s counsel’. All but three took up the offer. Terri Butler, a Queensland lawyer who would go on to become the Federal Member for Griffith asked if this demonstrated a surge of monarchist sentiment. Her response was:

‘No. Rather it was a pragmatic financial decision in recognition that the old order is back in power.’

At a time when we should be casting aside period costumes and using plain-speaking language in courts, it appeared senior lawyers in Queensland wanted to divorce themselves from the people they represent. Anachronistic titles do nothing but add to the mystery of the law that making it a stranger to the people and them a stranger to it. The abolishing of Senior Counsel and reintroduction of Queen’s Counsel seemed a retrograde step that had nothing to do with the administration of the law and everything to do with the aggrandisement of the practitioners.

As Queensland moved into 2013 and the end of its first year in power, it became clear that the hand behind the conservative Restoration of monarchical language was the Queensland LNP Attorney-General, and second-term Member for Kawana, Jarrod Bleijie who had turned 33 on 25 January 2013.

At COAG in December 2012, then Premier Campbell Newman drew on the ghost of Joh when he reserved Queensland’s right as a Sovereign State to amend its own laws regarding the change to the royal succession to allow a first-born daughter of Prince William to inherit the throne before any later-born sons. Rather than deferring to the Commonwealth to make this change, Newman and Bleijie insisted that, because the states boast their own viceroys in the form of governors, then Queensland should be allowed to pass its own legislation. Theirs is a lone stand in refusing to refer state powers to the Commonwealth in an effort to maintain an individual relationship with the monarchy.

The then Attorney-General, Jarrod Bleijie stated:

‘Given the longstanding ties and relationships between the Crown and States, it is appropriate the States should preserve this relationship through their own legislation.’

The decision had the potential to throw a spanner in Commonwealth member nations achieving a unanimous decision so that royal succession laws could be changed. The Commonwealth’s ‘very loud and very clear’ legal advice was that there was one crown in Australia, represented by the Governor-General and state governors, not many crowns.

On 14 January 2013, I wrote that with the anticipated birth of a royal heir in 2013 the Queensland Government went into forelock tugging hyper-drive. The culmination of all this monarchical fawning was when Brisbane icons such as the Story Bridge, King George Square and Reddacliff Place were bathed in blue light to celebrate at the time of Prince George’s birth.

In 2013, we were to see an ideological attack on Labour Day in Queensland. The 2012 Queen’s Birthday long weekend in June was to be the last after the Bligh Labor Government shifted the Queen’s Birthday holiday to the first weekend of October, while retaining a one-off Queen’s Jubilee public holiday in June 2012. At the time, Premier Anna Bligh said all holidays, except for the Queen’s Birthday, marked significant dates and was punctuated with official ceremonies or significance.

All this was thrown out the window when legislation passed through the Queensland Parliament moving the Labour Day public holiday from the historically traditional 1 May to the first Monday in October and the Queen’s Birthday public holiday back to its previous June timing. The change in attitude towards the public holiday timetabling suggested the Newman Government was determined to take a conservative monarchical stand.

On 19 April 2014, we did but see them passing by when the royal travelling sideshow rolled into Brisbane. William, Catherine and George. Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and their little prince. They came to Queensland – the state itself named in honour of George’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria – in a whirl of pomp, glamour, royal nappies and designer clothes and shoes.

The LNP teacup warriors hoped that by moving around the deckchairs and giving buildings and locations royal names it would help retain their grip on power. The renaming of the Brisbane North Bank precinct as Queen’s Wharf demonstrated their endeavours to raise the language of royalty in Queensland. Terri Butler, the new federal member for Griffith observed:

‘There’s a reason why conservatives like to stamp the monarchy onto our public institutions. It’s an assertion of the dominance of conservatism, and for that matter privilege and wealth, at the expense of labour.’

The architect of the monarchical revival in Queensland was Jarrod Bleijie who went missing in action in the last few months of the Newman Government during Operation Boring. But all of this effort by the Life Member of the Australian Monarchist League, Jarrod Bleijie, and his high tea warriors will not stop the rising demand for an Australian republic. Ultimately it simply made them look foolish. King Canute couldn’t hold back the tide nor could the Queensland LNP Government.

In the 1999 republican referendum, Queensland was by far the most pro-monarchy state in Australia, voting 37.44 per cent for a republic and 62.56 per cent against. The disbelief and public ridicule Prime Minister Abbott received after his own goal of awarding Prince Philip an Australian knighthood in the 2015 Australia Day honours lifted the veil from our collective eyes and exposed the fallacy of royalty. Even the Courier Mail became republican for a week or so.



But what will the new Palaszczuk Labor Government do in its first 100 days to swing the pendulum back towards an independent Australia? The Queensland ALP has a policy position on the commitment by the Australian people to the creation of an independent, free and enlightened Australia and there is certainly a great deal that can be rolled back including a re-look at Oaths of Allegiance.

There will no doubt be a kerfuffle in the media with the impending arrival of the spare to the heir Prince George but let’s not do lights on the Story Bridge. Although the good money is on James or Elizabeth, for the record, my prediction for the fourth-in-line in the order of succession to be Australia’s Head of State is Prince Richard or Princess Victoria.

It's all so ridiculous!

PM Abbott awards imperial bauble to Prince Philip: Time to end the farce

Just when you think Tony Abbott's decision in 2014 to restore imperial knighthoods couldn't become any more bizarre, the prime minister uses the Australia Day's honour list to award a knighthood to the Queen's consort Prince Philip.

THE MONARCHISTS have been asking themselves, with the Australia Day honours list announcement upon us and the Queen’s Birthday honours list in June, who should be nominated for an AK or AD award?

The real question is: would Prime Minister Tony Abbott dare name any knights ‘n dames in 2015 after the level of satire it inspired last year.

The answer is: "Yes".

In the lead up to Australia Day 2015. there had been no media about the awarding again of any Australian imperial honours. The Australian of the Year awards had been well publicised but not the possible "Knights and Dames" appointments.

On 27 March 2014, I wrote about how Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the former director of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy, announced the return of imperial honours for Australians. On 19 March 2014, on the Prime Minister’s recommendation, Her Majesty The Queen approved amendments to the Letters Patent for the Order of Australia to reinstate appointment of Knights and Dames of the Order of Australia.

At the time, the PM said he believed this was:

"... an important grace note in our national life."

For the first time since 1986, “pre-eminent” Australians were to be honoured as Knights and Dames in the Order of Australia. 

David Morris, national director of the Australian Republican Movement described the return of knighthoods as

“... turning the clock back to a colonial frame of mind that we had outgrown as a nation.”

The three Australian "Knights and Dames" created last year were: The Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVO, former Governor-General of Australia; His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd), Governor-General of Australia; and Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO, Governor of New South Wales.

Today it was announced the second and third AK’s to be awarded in the restored Knight of the Order of Australia division are His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston (retd).One is currently the Chair of the Council for the Order of Australia, and the other … well, the husband of the monarch.

As a palace spokeswoman said:

"Knights and dames in the Order of Australia are approved by the Queen on recommendation of the prime minister. We wouldn't comment further on the process."

Still, it’s rather glaring as to which has the greater conflict of interest.

The monarchists have been excited about turning the clock back and been suggesting names for knighthood such as tennis great Rod Laver MBE, the living Victoria Cross recipients, Australian Nobel Prize winners (even posthumous), previous GG’s, retired Generals and Chief Justices.

Interestingly, one of the only two pre-1985 AK’s living is Prince Charles and, with the provision that a knight can be a non-citizen, I’d suggested good money could be laid on Princes William or Harry receiving a knighthood in 2015 for having turned up in Australia a few times. On that logic, perhaps one should also be given to Prince George, who showed us exactly what he thinks of the ex-convicts with his instantly disdainful chuck of the toy bilby at Taronga Zoo. There’s even the depressing thought Rupert Murdoch (now a U.S. citizen) could be in line for a knighthood!

I was not far off though. Instead it was the Grandfather Royal, Prince Philip, who received an AK for his contribution to Australia throughout the Queen's 62-year reign and it was his his long life of service and dedication PM Abbott chose to be honoured by Australia. Special mention was also made of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards in Australia, which he said had positively influenced the lives of hundreds of thousands of young Australians.

It was Prime Minister Gough Whitlam who axed knighthoods in 1975, only to watch Malcolm Fraser reinstate "Knights and Dames" a year later.

Then, in 1986, Prime Minister Bob Hawke abolished the category all over again. John Howard is understood to have rejected the idea of reinstating "Knights and Dames" on the grounds that the endless chopping and changing was undermining the dignity of the honour. Many of his advisers also believed the Liberal Party would be mocked and seen as out of touch with modern Australia. (Howard is reported today as saying he did not agree with the restoration of these titles and would be unlikely to accept one.)

In the Australian honours system, appointments to the Order of Australia confer recognition for outstanding achievement and service. The Knight/Dame of the Order of Australia is awarded for extraordinary and pre-eminent achievement and merit in service to Australia or humanity at large. It is now the nation’s highest award. Governors-General become a Knight or Dame of the Order of Australia by virtue of their appointment as Governor-General. In addition to Governors-General, there will be a maximum of four appointments a year, excluding honorary awards to non-Australian citizens.

However, when Prime Minister Abbott named outgoing Governor-General Quentin Bryce a dame and her successor General Peter Cosgrove a knight the satirists had a field day.

Australian historian James Curran wrote in the Canberra Times, 31 March 2014 that

'In the symbolic landscape of Australian civic culture, Tony Abbott’s restoration last week of Australian knights and dames perhaps stands as one of the most pompous, pretentious, nostalgic and self-indulgent prime ministerial decisions in a generation.'

The re-establishment of the Imperial honours was done quickly and without consultation by PM Abbott with his Federal front bench, let alone the first two recipients.

IA columnist Bob Ellis stated that Prime Minister Abbott wanted to distract and deflect, as well as punish and shame his Opposition counterpart and abruptly came up with his plan to ennoble Quentin Bryce.

Senior correspondent Barry Everingham wrote that former Governor-General Ms Quentin Bryce heard of her “elevation” on the ABC's 8.30am radio news and that the Queen heard from an aide who was contacted by a member of the Australian media. Everingham also observed that Prime Minister Abbott trashed vice-regal protocol in the last moments of the term of Quentin Bryce as Governor General, at the same time as causing grave offence to the monarch.

And as contributor Clint Howitt argued:

'Tony Abbott's abrupt decision to bring back imperial honours has driven a wedge through the body politic from the vice-regal office holders, through the rank and file members of all political parties and through the voting public.'

Imperial honours are divisive and are out of touch with modern, multicultural, egalitarian Australia.
Professor Geoff Gallop, the national chair of the Australian Republican Movement, said today:

“This decision to appoint more knighthoods is the end result of the politicization of the system under Tony Abbott. We had a perfectly good honours system run by Australians. Placing the Knights and Dames system over and above that is demeaning the worthiness and opinions of Australians."

On 27 March 2014, when PM Abbott introduced the archaic British aristocratic titles above the Australian national honours system, Australians flooded the Australian Republican Movement with such overwhelming numbers the Australian Republican Movement server was on the verge of crashing.

David Morris, national director of the Australian Republican Movement, stated at the time:

"Since Mr Abbott’s announcement about 'knights and dames', our annualised membership growth rate has spiked to about 5000%. Many are re-joining, having previously been members. Many are people who say they voted for Mr Abbott’s Government but are dismayed by his personal decision, apparently made only in consultation with the Queen."

Perhaps another own goal by the Prime Minister may be good for the movement towards an Australian republic.

In an Australia Day eve book launch speech, Leader of the Federal Opposition, Bill Shorten urged Australians to support an Australian republic and head of state, arguing it would reflect the nation's "modern identity, our place in our region and our world". We now appear to have two federal political leaders divided clearly along monarchy and republic lines.

Bill Shorten: move to a republic would reflect a modern and inclusive Australia

If our identity today is Australian, then surely our national honours should be thoroughly Australian. It’s time to make the case for Australia to have a head of state that is one of our own — not someone from the other side of the world.

We should be advocating a fully and unambiguously independent Australia, no knights or dames required. How ridiculous!

No more serial imperial baubles

The monarchists have been asking themselves with Australia day honours list announcement upon us and the Queen's Birthday honours list in June, who should be nominated for an AK or AD award? The real question is would Prime Minister Tony Abbott dare name any knights ‘n dames in 2015 after the level of satire it inspired last year.

 

In the lead up to Australia Day 2015 there had been no media about the awarding again of any Australian imperial honours. The Australian of the Year awards had been well publicised but not the possible ‘sirs n dames’ appointments.
On 27 March 2014 I wrote about how Prime Minister Tony Abbott, the former director of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy announced the return of imperial honours for Australians. On 19 March 2014, on the Prime Minister’s recommendation, Her Majesty The Queen approved amendments to the Letters Patent for the Order of Australia to reinstate appointment of Knights and Dames of the Order of Australia. At the time, the PM said he believed this was:

"... an important grace note in our national life."

For the first time since 1986, “pre-eminent” Australians were to be honoured as Knights and Dames in the Order of Australia.  David Morris, national director of the Australian Republican Movement described the return of knighthoods as

“... turning the clock back to a colonial frame of mind that we had outgrown as a nation.”

The three Australian ‘sirs n dames’ created last year were: The Honourable Dame Quentin Bryce AD CVO, former Governor-General of Australia; His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd), Governor-General of Australia; and Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO, Governor of New South Wales.

The monarchists have been excited about turning the clock back and been suggesting names for knighthood such as Rod Laver MBE, the living Victoria Cross recipients, Australian Nobel Prize winners (even posthumous), previous GG’s, retired Generals and Chief Justices. Interestingly, one of the only two pre-1985 AK’s living is Prince Charles and with the provision that a knight can be a non-citizen.

I reckon good money could be laid on Princes William or Harry receiving a knighthood in 2015 for having turned up in Australia a few times. On that logic perhaps one should also be given to Prince George who showed us exactly what he thinks of the ex-convicts with his instantly disdainful chuck of the toy bilby at Taronga Zoo. There’s even the depressing thought Rupert Murdoch (now a US citizen) could be in line for a knighthood!

We'll see how close to the money I am tomorrow with a Royal snagging an Australian Knighthood.

37 Hilarious Responses To Knighthoods Being Brought Back To Australia

Vale Wayne Goss: Restorer, Reformer and Republican

Queenslanders were deeply saddened to hear news of the recent death of Wayne Goss, a life member of the Australian Republican Movement. The loss of this incredible man and proud Queenslander has left a gap in the ranks of those working towards securing an independent Australia.

Wayne Goss claiming victory in 1989

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO on 2 December 1989, 32 years of conservative rule in Queensland was brought to an emphatic end when 38-year-old lawyer Wayne Goss claimed victory in a Labor won landslide. Goss and Labor scored a 24-seat swing, the worst defeat of a sitting government up until that time in Queensland. Voters had clearly grown tired of the Joh era and the stench of corruption uncovered by Tony Fitzgerald QC. With the election of Goss and Labor, Queensland was rescued from the deep chasm of corruption, self-indulgence and arrogance it had fallen into.

Wayne Goss’s victory brought a breath of fresh air to government in Queensland. It brought light to the dark corners of government where corruption had taken root and led to a raft of reforms to rebuild the state and restore transparency to Queensland’s political system.

Once installed in office, he presided over the implementation of many of the reforms of the landmark Fitzgerald Inquiry into police corruption. He was absolutely driven to reform Queensland in terms of ridding the state of corruption and restoring the integrity of the electoral system. Establishing the Electoral and Administrative Reform Commission to abolish the electoral gerrymandering that had defined the state’s political environment throughout the Bjelke-Petersen years returned democracy to the people. His initiatives, in areas such as education, health, the environment and accountability, set new and higher standards for Queensland.

Like Gough Whitlam, Wayne Goss fought extremely hard to correct social injustices and bring about major progressive reforms such as decriminalising homosexuality, appointing Queensland's first female Governor, and abolishing the Queensland Police Special Branch.

Wayne Goss surrounded himself with people who would go on to have significant political careers. His chief of staff at this time was Kevin Rudd, later leader of the federal Labor Party and Prime Minister of Australia and his 1989 campaign director was Wayne Swan, subsequently treasurer and deputy prime minister of Australia. Also instrumental in his team in the early days of his premiership was Glyn Davis, who was appointed in the early 1990s to the Republic Advisory Committee.
Wayne Goss was a life member of the Australian Republican Movement.

The Queensland branch of the Australian Republican Movement was launched in 1993 during his Premiership. It was reported in 'Coalition sparks as Libs embrace republic', The Canberra Times, 30 March 1993, that Goss announced plans to remove references to the Queen and the Crown from all state oaths, affirmations and legislation. This was the beginning of an ongoing Queensland campaign.
On 28 April 1993, a new ministerial oath removing reference to the Queen was taken for the first time at the swearing in of the Attorney-General, Michael Lavarch. The Queensland federal politician Lavarch promised to

“... well and truly serve the Commonwealth of Australia', instead of 'well and truly serve Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors, according to law."

Michael Lavarch was later elected as a Queensland Constitutional Convention delegate for the ARM.
Goss stated in the ARM newsletter, 29 April 1993:

'There is no foreign power or benevolent monarch in some other part of the world watching over us. Australia’s on its own now and we must have a structure of government and a national identity that reflects that we are independent and we are Australians first and we are no longer attached to, or an appendage of, the British royal family.'

On 29 November 1995, Wayne Goss was guest speaker at a major ARM dinner at the Gateway Hotel, Brisbane. This marked his first major step in the republican debate. At this dinner Goss outlined

“... a plan to consolidate the Queensland Constitution and then to consult widely to prepare the constitution for a transition to a republic.”
~ (Armlet, Summer 1995/1996, p1)

ARM (Qld) supporter Gary Shadforth recalls how in May 2004 he

“... had the privilege of meeting Wayne at a Republic Upstairs function held many years ago in an old Brisbane pub held by the Queensland Branch of the Australian Republican Movement. Wayne was the keynote speaker. So many interesting and enlightening anecdotes with that deep rich voice. He certainly was a man who stood out in a crowd."

The last time Queensland republicans heard that “deep rich voice” was at the ARM (Qld) AGM held in the Red Chamber (old Upper House), Queensland Parliament on 24 November 2011. The guest speaker that evening was Courier Mail reporter Paul Syvret. Wayne Goss, as always, sat at the back of the chamber, however on this evening he was in full flight contributing his observations on the current political situation. His voice, as always, was a delight to hear.

Wayne Goss resigned as Premier and Leader of the Labor Party on 19 February 1996 and assumed something of an "elder statesman" role from the back benches.

He retired from politics at the 1998 Queensland state election. After his retirement from politics, Goss served in a variety of community and business roles.

Goss battled a series of brain tumours for 17 years, undergoing four operations to remove them. He died on 10 November 2014.

In a condolence speech to the House of Representatives on 26 November 2014, former Treasurer Wayne Swan said:

“With the passing of Wayne Goss, Queenslanders have lost one of their finest leaders. Wayne changed Queensland, the state we love, for the better. He dragged it into the sunlight after 32 years in the darkness. He was a leader of deep integrity. He was someone that we will all miss a lot. I remember Wayne as a role model for leadership and integrity and as a man who always held humble Queenslanders close to his heart.”

Wayne Goss was a premier worthy of celebration.

Vale, Wayne Goss.

Storming Eureka - 160 years on

Today is the 160th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade, a key event in the development of Australian democracy and Australian identity.

The Eureka rebellion came about because the goldfield workers (known as 'diggers') opposed the government miners' licences. The licences were a simple way for the government to tax the diggers. Licence fees had to be paid regardless of whether a digger's claim resulted in any gold. Less successful diggers found it difficult to pay their licence fees. The Eureka rebellion is considered by some historians to be the birthplace of Australian democracy. It is the only Australian example of armed rebellion leading to reform of unfair laws.

Although the 1854 Eureka Stockade insurrection was as atypical as it was dramatic, it was responsible for forcing republican and revolutionary language into more common use.  Shortly before the Eureka insurrection, an American present wrote:

the people are on the eve of a revolution ... Folks here are republican enough in their ideas, though they do not wish you to think so.  The bone and sinew of the country are the workingmen, and they feel a great desire to take care of themselves.

 On the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean, Americans generally believed that ultimately Australia would also become a republic.  The organisation, “Young America”, hoped that Australia would follow the lead of the United States and become a republic.  Franklin Pierce was elected President of the United States in 1852 on the “Young America” platform.  “Young America” believed that the “manifest destiny” of emerging nations was to be, among other things, republics. This idea was picked up by Jackie French in her novel, The night they stormed eureka. 

I was fortunate to hear Jackie French speak at the 2014 National History Teachers’ Conference in Brisbane. French is the third Australian Children’s Laureate, with her post taking in 2014-15, the position having been shared previously by Alison Lester and Boori Monty Pryor.

Jackie French published her first book, Organic Gardening in Australia in 1986, which has been followed by more than 140 titles, spanning non-fiction, picture books, collections, children’s, YA and adult, and incorporating fantasy, contemporary and historical fiction. Her books have garnered more than 60 awards. However, she has become particularly well-known for her time-slip novels such as Somewhere Around the Corner, Daughter of the Regiment, Macbeth and Son, and The Night They Stormed Eureka.

Jackie French’s junior fiction novel The Night They Stormed Eureka (2009) starts when Sam, a teenage girl, seeks refuge in a cemetery after having run away from her mother’s abusive boyfriend. In mental and physical pain, Sam imagines what life would have been like for the family of Percival and Elsie Puddleham, their names and dates carved on a headstone she shelters near. The depth of Sam’s longing for love and comfort reaches across the years to meet a yearning for a lost child, and she finds herself in mid-19th century Ballarat, not long before the bloody battle at the Eureka Stockade. Now in 1854 Sam finds a warm, inviting home with the Puddlehams who run “the best little cook shop on the diggings”. The Puddlehams dream of buying a luxury hotel with velvet seats, while others seek freedom from the government, with its corrupt officials and brutal soldiers.

But it was a time of great unrest among the miners on the diggings and Sam is swept up in the Eureka Rebellion, an iconic event on our national heritage landscape. As the summer days get hotter, and the miners’ protests are ignored with catastrophic results, Sam experiences at first-hand the power of a united stand, which will change her life forever. French’s recreation of the uprising against the British is not the Eureka of history books. She does not know if she’s changed the past or if it was another past. This was French’s way of showing that many of the history books have got it wrong about Eureka. In Sam’s Ballarat the Eureka rebellion was really about turning Australia into a republic, rather than an uprising of miners over compulsory mining licence fees. And while there were only 120 men left in the stockade when it was eventually stormed, in The Night They Stormed Eureka this was because thousands were lured to different parts of the camp through trickery.

Taking a fresh look at our past and recreating historical events is a thread that runs through many of French’s books resulting in the blending of historical events with contemporary characters, like Sam, who create a bridge for young readers into the past. At the end of The Night They Stormed Eureka, Sam awakens in the graveyard to a concerned friend and worried teacher who, suspecting she was homeless, have been looking for her. Experiencing Eureka has changed Sam and, for the first time, she reaches out for help. What she learns at Eureka is that when you stand together, you can change the world.

Jackie French’s fresh look at an event entrenched in our national heritage will touch and surprise every reader on an event that almost turned us on the path to republicanism.

 

The Lucky Country and the Republic - 50 years on

The first edition of The Lucky Country was published fifty years ago in December 1964 by staunch republican Professor Donald Horne, who provocatively critiqued Australia as mired in mediocrity and manacled to its past. Half a century later republicans use his ideas to champion a progressive, reforming idea.

IN OCTOBER 2014, the Australian Republican Movement published Speculating on the Australian republic - Five award-winning Australian speculative fiction stories ebook.

This republican speculative fiction anthology presents a compelling preview of the possible future of Australia as a republic (and a great addition to an Australian Summer Book Reading list). These five award-winning short stories show it is through speculative fiction that change can begin to how we see ourselves as a nation — now and into the future. 50 years ago, Donald Horne also speculated on Australian society including Australia’s republican future.

Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country was released in December 1964 as a Penguin paperback costing eight shillings and sixpence and caused a sensation with Horne’s words shaking Australia out of a self-satisfied reverie, questioning many traditional attitudes. The Lucky Country was serialised in The Australian and sold its original print run of 18,000 copies in just nine days. By the end of 1966, almost 100,000 copies had been sold — and over the next 30 odd years, another 160,000. The title almost immediately became part of the Australian lexicon, even if the irony was often lost, with Donald Horne being forever misquoted by everyday Australians.

Professor Donald Horne was one of Australia's foremost academics, historians and philosophers.

A staunch republican, he was born in the NSW Hunter Valley in 1921, studied at Sydney University and then forged a career in journalism becoming the editor of The Bulletin in the early 1960s. In 1973, Horne was made a professor in political science at the University of New South Wales. However it was the publication of The Lucky Country in 1964 that made Donald Horne Australia's most well-known public intellectual and got Australians thinking about themselves.

The year 1964 was when Rupert Murdoch launched The Australian and the Beatles toured to a rapturous reception. Apart from the shock of the collision between the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne and the destroyer HMAS Voyager, with the loss of 82 lives, these were the “comfortable and relaxed years”, to borrow a phrase from John Howard. The country was a few years away from the disruption of Vietnam-era protests and the coming to an end of Prime Minister Robert Menzies’ 23 years of conservative government.

Donald Horne captured the Australian experience of this time when, in his book, The Lucky Country, he wrote the following about the nation:

'Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people’s ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise.'

Horne later said people remembered the first part of the sentence but ignored the warning in the second. This applies particularly among those who refer to the term the Lucky Country, meaning a nation that is mineral rich, so therefore ‘lucky’ in its natural wealth. Horne was critiquing an Australia that did not think for itself; a country manacled to its past; and 'still in colonial blinkers'. His words were meant as a wake-up call but were widely interpreted as an affirmation of the Australian way of life. They were meant to spark change, but instead produced a relaxed approach and a “she'll be right” mentality.

In The Lucky Country, Horne dissected the mores of a country that was affluent and comfortable — but mediocre. Australians, he wrote, were too ready to settle for the “second rate”.

In the 1960s, republican activity was restarted by authors Geoffrey Dutton and Horne. In British Subject (Nation, 6 April 1963, pp.15-16). Dutton argued that Australia should declare itself a republic, elect its own governors, abolish the use of the word “British”, and substitute “Australian”.

No doubt Dutton’s 1963 article raised the idea of republicanism as an alternative, but it was Donald Horne’s The Lucky Country in 1964 that put the republican debate back on the public agenda.

In The Lucky Country, Horne argued that the ceremonial clinging to Britain was part of Australia’s 'delusional structure' and that, 'in a sense Australia is a republic already'.

Horne also made the original case for popular election of an Australian head of state, before discounting its likely effect:

'One might think that that such a dignitary (an appointed President) would have to be elected by the Australian people but the Australian political leaders might prefer to sneak him through a back door.'

Donald Horne proffers the minimalist approach of replacing the Governor-General with a President. He suggests a number of methods for selecting the President from appointment by the Prime Minister, appointment by both Houses of parliament, a national convention of State and Federal parliaments, and the direct method of election.

After The Lucky Country, Horne took up the republican theme in The Next Australia (1970); Death of the Lucky Country (1976), and The Queen and his satire His Excellency’s Pleasure (both 1977).

In 1970, although Horne could not predict the event that would be the catalyst for the establishment of an Australian republic, he argued the apathy that was developing towards Britain would propel the movement towards an Australian republic. In his 1972 national analysis, The Australian People, Horne argued that political nationalism, as expressed through the desire to establish an Australian republic, had received little support from the 1880s onwards. Instead, the more usual attitude was

'... self-congratulatory on the moral advantages of belonging to the British Empire.'

Australian political dissatisfaction with Britain was expressed only within this context.

In Australia’s history republicanism has always been more than an argument for breaking our constitutional ties with the British Crown; it’s also been about how we can create an improved system of democracy that better reflects our values as a free, fair and multicultural nation. It’s been about a better future and how we can create it through a mixture of reflection, deliberation and decision. It’s driven along by the belief that we can do better and that our political imagination can be trusted to find a system that will inspire and endure.

Our opponents think we have reached the pinnacle of achievement and no good can come from a move to the republic. They fear change and prefer the past to the future.

If Donald Horne was to write his famous sentence from The Lucky Country today, 50 years on, the second half would appear to be still valid. Australians are still living on “other people’s ideas” when it comes to the attitude of many Australians towards the republican issue. However, through the National Republican Short Story Competition. the Australian Republican Movement has encouraged imaginative thinking of the sort we need also to apply to our institutions generally. How could they be better? How can we translate aspirations into goals? How can we achieve those goals?

Thinking and doing, doing and thinking – that’s the key to improvement!

Speculating on the Australian Republic ebook - now available

Speculating on the Australian Republic: five award-winning short stories ebook is now available for purchase for $3.99 from Amazon Kindle, Smashwords, Kobo and iBooks.

These five award-winning Australian speculative fiction stories from the 2009-2013 National Republican Short Story Competition will intrigue, educate and delight. This republican speculative fiction anthology presents a compelling preview of the possible future of Australia as a republic.

These five award-winning short stories show it is through speculative fiction that change can begin to how we see ourselves as a nation - now and into the future. So, let’s speculate about us, our country – and the future we will share, together.

As these five prize-winning short stories show, it is through speculative fiction that change can begin. We can’t achieve anything unless we imagine it first. Before every great invention and before every great journey is the idea. Without ideas and imagination, we are all trapped in the past. So, for anyone who is interested in speculating on the possible futures of the Australian republic, please … read on.

Short Story 1 - Rook Feast

Rook Feast by Kel Robertson tells the story of the final meeting between the King of England, who is under house arrest, and a minister of the British government. The minister (who is also a relative) has come to inform the last King of England “on a perfect English spring day” what is to be his fate.

“You want me to abdicate in favour of Elizabeth … and leave?”
“No, it’s much too late for abdication.”
“I see,” he said. “Then it really is over.”
“Afraid so.”
“More than 1500 years of history all the way from bloody Edgar. Over. Ended.”
“History doesn’t change,” I said. “The past is always as it was.”
“Very epigrammatic,” he snorted.
He underarmed another cucumber sandwich onto the lawn. A larger number of rooks landed and savaged it noisily.
“There’s nothing that can be done?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re quite sure?”
“Quite.”

Short Story 2 - Inauguration Day

Inauguration Day by Sean Ness tells the story of James Hapeta, an Australian Federal Police Lieutenant assigned to Presidential protection detail with the Inauguration Day Presidential parade. As the Presidential motorcade travels through the streets of Canberra, Hapeta and his security colleagues attention to security is at fever pitch due to a discovered credible threat.

… the President and his wife walked over to the sleek limousine, escorted closely by one particular bodyguard – short and thick, bald and fierce-looking. After the Presidential couple were inside, the man closed their door and approached Hapeta.
“Commander Griggs,” Hapeta said, “What’s the situation? Is he going to cancel the …”
Griggs interrupted. “The motorcade is going ahead. Same route – Ainslie, Antill, Northbourne. Keep your men alert and the formation tight. We get to Parliament in thirty minutes, no less.”
Hapeta choked down a horrified gasp. “But sir, surely with a threat this credible … I know how much the parade means to the President, but …”
“You have your orders, Lieutenant. The President says we continue, so we do.”

Short Story 3 - The King and Mister Crow

The King and Mister Crow by RPL Johnson has the future King William V reflecting on the theme of citizen or subject and issues of individuality and Australian independence while he lays injured in a plane crash in the Australian outback.

“Are you a flying doctor?” the aboriginal asked and enough of my pride had survived the crash to feel a little crestfallen at his lack of recognition.
“No,” I replied.  “It was supposed to be a state visit.”
The old man examined me closely.  “I know you,” he said eventually. “You are the Prince.”
“King,” I corrected him.  “For two years now.”  News must travel slowly out here.  “Before you lies King William the Fifth, by the Grace of God King of the United Kingdom and his other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.”
The man nodded sagely.  He sat down next to me, thin brown legs folded under him like a bushel of firewood.  His pale soles faced me.  It looked as if he could have walked a tightrope of barbed wire without feeling a thing.
“I am Wakarla,” he said.  “You are a long way from home.  What brings you here?”

Short Story 4 - The Harvest

The Harvest by Jennifer Morris explores the theme of defining national identity with its excellent evocation of the country town atmosphere as well as descriptions of the vegetable garden and its connections with a sense of home.

Daniel and young Jim tossed the coin. It landed President side up. "I get to collect the eggs," yelled Daniel. "You have to wash their water dish out Jim. Back soon Gran!" I watched out the window. The boys, my youngest grandsons, ran, jostled and pushed each other most of the way to the chook yard. The original vegetable garden to the left of the yard was flourishing. Broad beans were flowering, the coriander was spurting new growth and the parsley had taken on a life of its own.

Short Story 5 - When the Ice Melts

When the Ice Melts by Ingle Knight with its quietly satirical edge connects the climate change controversy with discussion of euthanasia and dilemmas in the republican debate.

As the air gets warmer and the ice melts we should be facing the end of the world but instead we find our days occupied with another kind of ending. What the two endings have in common is the Prime Minister's lifelong refusal to give credence to either of them until, suddenly, now. I know everything seems strange these days. Nothing is turning out as we would have expected. But what seems strangest of all is that it is the old man's capitulation to the inevitability of what's happening that has been the catalyst for things turning out as they have.

Final Word - Professor Geoff Gallop

In Australia’s history republicanism has always been more than an argument for breaking our constitutional ties with the British Crown; it’s also been about how we can create an improved system of democracy that better reflects our values as a free, fair and multicultural nation.

It’s been about a better future and how we can create it through a mixture of reflection, deliberation and decision. It’s driven along by the belief that we can do better and that our political imagination can be trusted to find a system that will inspire and endure.

Our opponents think we have reached the pinnacle of achievement and no good can come from a move to the republic. They fear change and prefer the past to the future.

Through the National Republican Short Story Competition we have encouraged imaginative thinking of the sort we need also to apply to our institutions generally. How could they be better? How can we translate aspirations into goals? How can we achieve those goals?

Thinking and doing, doing and thinking – that’s the key to improvement!

Professor Geoff Gallop AC.
Chair, Australian Republican Movement

For more details on Speculating on the Australian Republic, email fiction@republic.org.au