Thomas Keneally has thoughts on the republic

And I’m not 100% sure what I think of those thoughts…

And so the question today for Australia is not to do with his coronation but with ourselves, that we should in the end and at last decide on the republic and not talk ourselves out of voting yes for it. So that’s the question still. Not the coronation today and the mystique of monarchy. Our own intent is the point. Australian republicans can say God save the king! Because Charles is not the problem, and in any case is still our constitutional head of state until we do something about that. The lies of politicians who pretend that Mandarin will become Australia’s chief language, that there will be tanks in the street, that the milk will turn to blood if we give up elitist monarchy for fraternal republic – they are the problem with this process. They are rustling up equivalent misrepresentations to hinder the voice vote.

I mean, on one hand, yeah? I do think Australia will go republic at some point that I may even live to see; it might even be sooner rather than later (assuming Albo gets re-elected and sticks to his promise about a referendum in his second term, so we may get it as early as 2025). But I don’t know that it’s the monarchists who are the problem; rather, it’s the republicans… or at any rate, it’s the Australian Republican Movement‘s insistence upon the “Australian Choice Model”…

…which was what lost them the 1999 referendum: instead of asking “do we want to become a republic in the first place”, they asked “do we want to become this specific kind of republic that the Constitutional Convention seemed to think was a good idea”. I have a feeling John Howard agreed that this version was the one that should go to the referendum cos he knew it probably wouldn’t win, and indeed it didn’t. I don’t think that many people really had that much affection for the monarchy per se in 1999, it was more that people in favour of a republic didn’t want that one. And that’s the version the ARM is still favouring on its website:

The Australian Choice Model was developed through extensive consultation and research. It describes what changes need to be made to our Constitution so we can vote for our own Aussie Head of State. It is good policy and it’s achievable. It’s been carefully developed to align with the views of people like you – and will make our nation even stronger.
So, how does it work? The Australian Choice Model will allow every State and Territory Parliament to nominate one candidate for election to be our Head of State. The Federal Parliament will be able to nominate up to three. We will then hold a national election for Australians to decide which candidate should be Head of State – a vote for all of us.

So what if we got a shortlist comprised of, for example, Mark Latham, Peter Dutton, Scott Morrison and Malcolm Roberts? It might be “a vote for all of us”, but it’s not our choice. And I think as long as the ARM keep trying to push this republic model rather than the basic work of convincing people how we’ll actually benefit from being a republic beyond just the feel-good aspect of having our “own” head of state, I don’t think the monarchists actually have that much to worry about…