This article was originally published in Australian Financial Review on or about 15 October 2024 and was written by the author in their capacity as a contributor for that publication.
It has been republished on the IPA website with permission. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
The vibrant republican sentiment of the 1980s has been replaced by a dour, downbeat guilt-ridden version in the 2020s.
At about 7pm on the night of the Voice referendum a year ago, a senior Liberal staffer remarked to a colleague, ‘Well, the republic had just died too.’ The projects of elites have a habit of failing when put to a democratic vote.
In 1999, the republic (or at least the cobbled-together model of a republic offered to the public) was rejected with a 55 per cent No vote. In 2023, the Voice was rejected with a 60 per cent No vote.
When King Charles III visits Australia this week, he won’t be met by the adoring crowds that greeted him during his previous visits with his first wife.
No state premier, Labor or Liberal, can be bothered going to Canberra next week for the official reception for the country’s head of state. While the Queensland premier does have a state election to attend to, it is a remarkable coincidence that every other premier is busy on that day.
But the ambivalence of premiers and the public’s shrugging of its shoulders about the reigning monarch’s first visit in more than a decade shouldn’t be mistaken for any growing sympathy for republicanism. And in fairness, it hasn’t been.
The Australian Republic Movement’s campaign to coincide with the visit, ‘Monarchy: The Farewell Oz Tour’, is frivolous and unserious, much like the republican cause is itself these days.
If a referendum on the republic were held this weekend, the No vote would be even bigger than it was 25 years ago. If ever a model could be agreed to, another referendum on the republic wouldn’t need Malcolm Turnbull to have it lose.
The republic is a 10th-order issue amid a cost-of-living crisis. It’s only interesting to people who think MI6 told John Kerr to sack Gough Whitlam.
At a deeper level though, the effort to make the country a republic, as forlorn as that attempt might be, is part of the conscious, deliberate and ongoing effort to redefine Australia and its history.
Foster didn’t pause to ask why refugees flee to Australia and not to somewhere else.
‘First wave’ republicanism in Australia in the 1980s was confident, patriotic, and based on a sense of pride in the nation and its achievements. The country’s largest-ever gathering was on Australia Day in 1988, when 2.5 million people celebrated the Bicentenary around Sydney Harbour with avowed republican Bob Hawke, Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
The next day, The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the occasion.
‘English, Irish, Lebanese, Italian, Greek, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese came, immigrants from the 130 nationalities that make up this country, wearing shorts, thongs and T-shirts, carrying Eskies, and now speaking Australian accents, their children waving Australian flags… There was a spirit of happiness, of good fellowship with whomever you were squashed next to in the throng or spontaneously danced with, a bond of knowing everyone was out in the streets to celebrate what we’ve got.’
In the 1980s, republicanism aimed to make a good country even better. The ‘second wave’ republicanism of today is something completely different. It is permeated with identity politics, grievance, and the guilt of colonialism.
It’s represented by people like former footballer, Craig Foster, who until recently was co-chair of the Australian Republican Movement. In 2022, he told the National Press Club the country and its national identity had been shaped by ‘xenophobia’ and ‘racism’, and he hoped for a different Australia where ‘the economy serves the people’, and individuals were not discriminated against because of their ‘gender, sexuality, ability [sic], colour, and race’.
Nowhere did Foster talk of Australia being one of the world’s oldest and most successful democracies. He spoke passionately about what he believed to be Australia’s ill-treatment of refugees, but he didn’t pause to ask why refugees flee to Australia and not to somewhere else.
Foster made not a single positive reference to Australia. A few months after that speech, he was elected to lead the Australian Republic Movement by a unanimous vote of its National Committee.
Australia’s best chance of becoming a republic was probably in the 1980s. If we ever recapture that ‘spirit of happiness’ and we again can celebrate ‘what we’ve got’, maybe Australians would vote to make their head of state an Australian.
Until that happens, Australia as a republic is a long way away. Maybe Australia will never be a republic.
