26 April 2008

Overheard at a recent ARM thinkfest

The foundations of the republicy are already strong and in place. Consider these factoids:
  • The English Queen wants us to go, that’s why she signed the Australia Acts. She’s sick of colonials, especially Australians, and wishes we’d just grow up and leave home. We’ve been rejected, so why hang around? She’s probably a republican at heart anyway (not that we care because she’s not one of us).
  • It is time to cut our ties with England. It’s the last link remaining, and until we do it, we aren’t fully mature and independent, and won’t be respected by our neighbours and trade partners. They’ll keep looking down on us.
  • A majority want our own head of state. It’s a no-brainer. There’s always been a majority in favour. We won the voluntary postal vote for the 1999 convention. This shows that using the right voting system allows the people to express their real feelings,
  • The 1999 referendum was scuttled by Howard. He manipulated the convention and designed the question so that it would fail. It was typical of his culture wars. The people just need to be asked the right question, especially one that allows them to elect a president.
  • Many people otherwise conservative are favourably inclined to having an Australian as head of state. Look at how many there are in the Liberal Party. This cuts across party lines. The left fully supports a change, no question about it. It’s Labor policy.
  • It’s inevitable. With the passage of time we will have our own head of state. It will come, hopefully soon or at least in our lifetime. But it’s inevitable.

With such strong foundations how can we fail?

Republiciness: it's back

Prime Minister K. Rudd has struck a huge blow for the republicy.  At a management retreat held inside a hill in Canberra last weekend, the Chosen 1002 nominated ‘the republic’ as the key focus for public policy over the next 12 years.  The crowd went wild with adulation for Kevin, chanting “krepublic, krepublic” (not to be confused with crepuscle, crepuscle, which is something to do with twilight).  Apparently two people kept quiet, but it was nevertheless a wonderous display of overwhelming support from 99.8% of the Chosen.  This is well managed expert democracy in action. 

The Old Monarchists complained that they were  excluded from the retreat, but K. Rudd's chief facilitator pointed out that they didn’t apply to come.  Even so, the facilitators had made great efforts to find some monarchists to invite, looking here, looking there, but they just couldn't find any.  Therefore, they concluded, there aren't any left, or if there are, their reliance on zimmer frames was a clear indication that they would have nothing to contribute to themes and streams about the future.  Obviously, they'd all be dead by 2020, so what would be the point?