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AUSTRALIAN STATE LEADERS threw their support behind a republic today, with one saying the nation should not have to wait for the end of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign to cut ties with the British monarchy.
Ahead of Australia Day tomorrow, seven of the nation’s eight state and territory leaders signed a declaration calling for an Australian head of state to replace the reigning royal in London.
The only state leader not to sign up, Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett, said he also supported a republic, but just did not think “the time is right”.
Failed referendum
Federal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is already a noted republican, having passionately led the cause ahead of a failed referendum in 1999, as is opposition Labour leader Bill Shorten.
Australian Republican Movement chairman Peter FitzSimons seized on the new enthusiasm.
All of Australia’s political leaders now support an Australian head of state.
“Never before have the stars of the Southern Cross been so aligned in pointing to the dawn of a new republican age for Australia,” he said, referring to a constellation in the southern hemisphere sky which appears on the Australian flag.
FitzSimons, who wants the process on a referendum over becoming a republic to start by 2020, said the declaration sent a message to the prime minister.
Turnbull has previously said that he has more pressing priorities than turning the nation into a republic.
My own view… is that the next occasion for the republic referendum to come up is going to be after the end of the Queen’s reign.
’What are we waiting for?’
But South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill said it would be “the ultimate act of respect” if the Queen presided over the transfer of Australia from a monarchy to a republic.
“I think that’s something that she could preside over and do it in the elegant and expert way in which she has handled her relationship as head of Australia,” he told the ABC.
I mean if you think about it, what are we waiting for? Are we waiting for her to die? I would have thought that it’s much more respectful to have her supervise this transition.
The British crown’s power in Australia is seen as largely symbolic, and while Queen Elizabeth II is hugely popular Down Under the monarchy is viewed by some as an anachronistic colonial relic.
When then prime minister Tony Abbott knighted the Queen’s husband Prince Philip last Australia Day, it was met with ridicule and disbelief.
The media dubbed it a “knightmare” for Abbott who was later dumped by his party for Turnbull.
But Gabrielle Hendry, a spokeswoman for the Australian Monarchist League, said while debate was healthy and democratic, “the system works” as it stands and there was no need to change it.
“It gives us an impartial head of state,” she told AFP.
Support for a republic has wavered over the years, with a Fairfax-Nielsen poll in 2014 finding that 51% of the 1,400 people surveyed favoured the status quo compared to 42% supporting a republic.
Weatherill, however, said there had always been “an underlying sense of support for a republic” despite the 1999 referendum failing by 45 to 55%.
“It’s just a question of rekindling that,” he said.
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Flamin’ drongos…. finally got the balls to cut the apron strings!
It’s sunset time on the English Empire
That was the British Empire and the sun set on it a long time ago.
It hasn’t. Yet. But only because of a few dozen people living in an area smaller than Disney World.
British Empire aka English Empire as British Empire was driven 100% by England
There goes there GPO’S
Did that selective Anglophobia lighten the burden on your shoulders, perchance?
Oh a bit sensitive are we now that all the dividing and conquering is behind you?
Who exactly is sowing divisions here?
Take down the Union Jack.
Ireland is now a vassal State of the EU, which is run by Berlin.
The Bundestag sees the Irish budget to approve it or not before the Irish people do.
Ireland does not have full fiscal autonomy (interest rate control) or monetary (its own currency) independence.
Goodbye Empire, hello Empire.
It’s the riechstag these days.
It’s the union flag, the jack is what it flies from
I’ll just never understand why these people still want some tart in a crown thousands of miles being some sort overarching leader for them
That’s FG for you.
It’s why I’ve never understood the loyalists up north. Why go through all that fighting just to be ruled by an unelected inbred rich toff who couldn’t care less about them. It must be a self esteem thing.
Martin McGuinness can console Betty next time he meets his Head of State.
You muppet fancy calling an old woman a tart, she’s only a figure head of an empire who had the decency to apologise and meet the man who murdered her relative
Brilliant news! Australia is an amiable nation that has developed its own culture and identity. They deserve to cut ties with that rotten monarchy they are no more British than ourselves.
Cut the ties. It’s so last century. Colonial past .
They’re hardly cutting ties…It’s not exactly like they’re closing the Australian embassy in London. They just want the head of state to actually be from the state…
Cut the ties as in head of state as per story. Over exaggerated my comment Rasputin. More than one way to use cut the ties.
Sorry Little One. That was meant to be a stand alone comment and not a reply. Not sure how it ended up there. .
Be careful this will probably offend all the FG/FF supporters..
Shinners just jealous that Australia can achieve a republic without murdering innocent people…
The Irish republic was founded by the gun get a grip you uneducated Muppet
40+ years of SF/PIRA terrorism didn’t achieve a republic…
The Old IRA helped found this state. I’d say it eats you up inside knowing that Michael Collins was involved with them
Collins and the Irish Republican Army of the Government of Ireland had a democratic mandate from the Irish people.
yes,and that same democratic mandate entitled all the people,not just those living in the 26 counties a say on the treaty and partition,that didn’t happen
**Better to govern yourself badly than be run well by others’ Behan.
The last referendum was rigged – the people were given the choice of the queen as head of state OR a president appointed by the government. This was very unpopular as the people wanted a vote over who was head of state and not end up with the president role being jobs for the mates etc.
Yet despite this, the referendum was only narrowly won
There’s still a strong Unionist undercurrent there obviously though.
Ireland was lucky to get out when we did, all the carnival of reaction not withstanding, the British Empire went into decline because of Irish Independence which helped spark a global movement of Liberation for native peoples and for no other reason.
Lucky? Ya we’re doing great on our own.
A government full of teachers and muppets. In the hole by billions. Quality.
It was actually the enormous human and financial cost of two successive world wars which sent the Empire into decline. The reason the Easter Rising is barely remembered here in Britain has little to do with wanting to airbrush it from history, it’s more to do with the same reason the War of 1812 is barely remembered – there were bigger things (for us, anyway) going on at the time on the other side of the Channel.
Just like Scotland, they had their chance and voted for the union. Granted, Howard, the PM at the time was sucking off the Queens teet at the time.
Bye bye Butcher’s Apron…Hello fully independent state-sponsored aboriginal apartheid.
Just goes to show how delusional Aussie politicians are. Of any country I’ve been to, Australia to my eyes seems most likely to crash and burn from a massive bubble. With China slowing down too, wouldn’t you think they’d be focusing on doing all they can to avoid the inevitable.
Quite shocking really….they had to use smelling salts on John Bruton after he heard the news.
A lot of people here want to tell Australians what to do? How about we just keep opinions to ourselves people.
When has anyone changed their mind because of what some one wrote and then there is Mein Kampf?
Not before time
Looks like Partition. Western Australia being the new “Northern Ireland”! The rest being “The Republic”!!!
Why doesn’t Australia start by removing the colonial-era Union Jack from their national flag? To have another country’s, such as the UK’s, flag imposed on your own doesn’t make Australia look as independent as it actually is; it doesn’t reflect or project Australia’s uniqueness to the world.
Flags frequently have little to do with the present composition of a place or organisation – they are more often than not a static image from its history.
For example, England still continues using the Three Lions on its Royal Arms despite it originally being the coat of arms of the Plantagenet dynasty – there hasn’t been a Plantagenet on the throne since Richard III was killed and replaced by the Tudors – a Welsh dynasty. The Three Lions have little to do with the present England, and yet try getting us to remove them from our football shirts.
What did Prince Phillip do this time lol.
As in cutting his ties lol.
Question:
What happens when Prince Charles becomes King Charles the Third of England?
Answer:
The Australians will vote to become The Republic of Australia immediately.
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