Newsletter item – The Real Republic Australia, February 2023
Reaching Out to Local Communities
The Real Republic Australia has embarked on an outreach program following the release of our discussion paper on how Australia might transition to a republic with a genuine directly elected Head of State.
Our very comprehensive discussion paper – available at realrepublic.au – outlines our ideas but, more importantly, it offers a chance for Australians to tell us their ideas.
We want to hear the views of people in local communities across the nation. We don’t want the voices of local and regional communities to be drowned out by those in Sydney or Canberra.
Our discussion paper is one way the people in those communities can have their say on what we propose as well as let us know where they think our model might be improved.
Our model for a republic is based on Australians being able to participate in a genuine direct election for our Head of State. That means we do not want any barriers between eligible candidates and voters.
The title of our discussion paper is Your Choice/the People’s Choice which summarises our approach. Our Head of State should not be chosen for us by a hereditary monarchical system. Our Head of State also should not be picked for us by politicians.
Nor should politicians filter those who may wish to stand for election, as the Australian Republic Movement’s model proposes. We do not support the ARM’s idea for having more than 800 federal and state politicians hand down to voters a shortlist of “approved” candidates.
That is not direct election and echoes the ‘politicians’ republic’ model that failed at the 1999 referendum because voters clearly did not want politicians picking their Head of State for them. We should choose who is our Head of State through a genuine direct- election model.
Although a republic referendum may not be held until the 2025-2028 term of Federal Parliament, now is the time to start discussing ideas so that everyone is better informed when it comes to referendum day.
Not everyone will agree with all of the ideas we have included in our discussion paper. But at this stage we need to ensure we have an informed and factual debate. It is too soon to start the detailed drafting of new clauses for the Constitution. That’s a task for the government’s legal experts at a later date.
Right now we need to put forward ideas and let Australians, especially in local communities, have their say.
