Far from a jaunty little number, Wham!’s smash hit is actually about a relationship, not Christmas at all. With respects (and apologies) to George Michael, ‘Last Christmas Australia gave the Monarchy our heart, but the very next day they gave it away, so this year to save us from tears we should give it to someone special!’
Our Constitution gives power to the Monarch. The Monarch gave his power away by outsourcing his job to the Governor-General, by not bothering to visit let alone represent us, by allowing his family to lobby against us and by almost exclusively focusing on Britain. At best we are an afterthought, but I think it’s more than that, I think the Monarch has moved on, they simply aren’t interested in us anymore. They consider us an independent nation, so we should make that a reality and move on like they have. We should take back power and give it to someone special – a true blue Aussie!
Christmas carols aren’t the only greatest hits hitting the airways or maybe I should say broken records playing on repeat. The Australians for Constitutional Monarchy and the Australian Monarchist League have both been hard at work running the same old tired lines about the republic and referenda. They’re trying to delay the people’s right to have their say by arguing a republic referendum won’t be for over a decade, they’re saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and they’re calling for us to explain how a republic could improve our democracy.
That’s an invitation I’ll accept any day of the week and I’m happy to provide some answers and start the conversation.
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An Australian republic is the next big question for Australians to consider.
Australians have two primary mechanisms for directly shaping their governance: general elections and referenda. While it has been noted and agreed the costs of both are significant, what cannot be overlooked is the right of the Australian people to have a say. To write off referenda is akin to removing fifty percent of the rights of the Australian people to have that say.
In fact, it could be argued having more participation is not only more democratic but would likely improve trust in the system. Put simply, we should have more, not less, democracy and that includes referenda and citizen’s participation and engagement to help shape decisions which affect them.
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Australia is a bloody great place. In so many ways, we are the envy of the world: pristine beaches and environment, laid back attitudes, strong economy and trade, food and national security, robust democracy and political stability. A republic is the chance for us build on these solid foundations and enhance what we’ve already got to bring our system into the 21st Century.
The first step is to appreciate, acknowledge and affirm our commitment to these things which make Australia great. ARM believes in stability and democracy, strong national defence, the rule of law, responsible government, the Westminster system and the Australian way of life, and in our relationship with the British people – these beliefs will never change and we’re on a unity ticket with the monarchists on these issues.
Where we differ is where we see opportunity for growth, improvement and strengthening our democracy, they see protecting outdated and out-of-touch institutions where someone is gifted obscene wealth and power just because they were born into the right family.
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And let me tell you a bit about that family and how it differs from the average Australian family.
The Monarch and his family belong to an exclusive little club. They live a life of luxury with no idea about the costs and circumstances Australians are facing. They have over 500 maids and servants, and personal staff at their beck and call. They don’t have to get up in the morning to Vegemite the kid’s toast and pack the lunch boxes before rushing out the door to commute to work. And, they don’t have to work hard to get ahead, make ends meet or to pay off their mortgage.
As Australian families struggle with their mortgage repayments or to even get into the property market, our King has 7 palaces, 10 castles, 12 homes, 56 cottages and 14 ancient ruins where he can hang his crown. It’s estimated, because there’s no transparency on the Firm’s wealth, that the royal property portfolio is worth over $37 billion (AUD) – talk about fit for a King. And, that’s before you consider the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwell which generate millions in annual returns for the royals and which we’ve just learnt assumes deceased estates to fund renovations on properties in their portfolio – but again good luck putting an actual figure on that given the lack of transparency.
News out of the UK shows Charles wasn’t even the “hardest working royal” in 2023 – he only held 425 engagements – Princess Anne topped the list at 457. Queen Camilla only managed 297, while our future King and Queen, William and Kate, only bothered to do 172 and 128 engagements all year. That might sound like a lot, but a typical engagement lasts less than 20 minutes. If you assume the 20 minutes on average and an ordinary working day of 7 hours, Charles worked around 142 hours or the equivalent of 20 days full time work. Camilla 99 hours or 14 days. William 57 hours or 8 days. Kate 43 hours or 6 days. And let’s not forget there are 15 Commonwealth countries who call Charles their Head of State, so that’s about 1.3 days per year, per country, he put in.
Even if you doubled or tripled Charles’ “engagements”, it can’t possibly compare to the typical Aussie who works 7-8 hour days for around 249 days per year.
Charles collects around £20 million a year ($38 million AUD). That’s about £38,000 ($73,000 AUD) an hour. That’s over 2000 times the average hourly wage of Australians who get $35.30 per hour. And that doesn’t include the over £86 million he gets in the British taxpayer funded sovereign wealth fund which uses to pay for his 500 royal household staff and property maintenance, and the £369 million the Poms are spending renovating and repairing Buckingham Palace. With numbers like these it’s no wonder even the Brits are seeing rising support for becoming a republic.
It’s also no wonder our petition calling for the Royals to fund their own travel to visit Australia received over 11,000 signatures in the first 24 hours.
The privileged club Charles and his family belong to gets even smaller when you consider there are 195 independent countries in the world and only 43 have a Monarch as Head of State. It gets smaller again when you consider 15 of those 43 are the realms of King Charles III. So, there are only 26 monarchs and royal families left in the world. There’s one monarch for every 304 million people on earth, putting Charles in not the 1% club, but the 0.00000033% club.
Australians see rising interest rates and cost of living, and know the Monarch can’t possibly relate. Australians look to their neighbours to find Indigenous, multicultural and European Australians, and know the Monarch isn’t representative. Australians are questioning politics, politicians and the media with levels of distrust in the system on the rise, and know the Monarch is gifted power and privilege by birth which isn’t merit or choice.
So when monarchists ask why fix the system if it ain’t broken, I say parts of the system aren’t working and aren’t suitable to modern times. The whole system doesn’t have to be broken for there to be a need to look for improvements to make it better.
Just as we took the wheels and horsepower from the horse and cart and gave them to cars and trucks to make travel and transport better. Just as we took the need to share messages from the quill, the rotary phone and telegrams and gave it to mobile phones and the internet to make engagement and communication better. Just as we took the need to provide sanitation and pain relief from the slug of rum and biting down on a stick and gave it morphine and anaesthetic to make healthcare better. We can take the best of our current system, add learnings around the world, and give it to an Australian republic to make our democracy and governance better.
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A republic is the chance for Australia to have a Head of State elected on merit by the people, accountable to the people and fully committed to and working full-time for the people! The Head of State would be responsible for promoting Australian industry and trade, safeguarding our Constitution, commanding our military, encouraging people to visit and hold events in Australia, and handling the multitude of official overseas visits required of a Head of State – leaving the Prime Minster in the country to primarily focus on domestic policy issues, like fixing the cost of living.
A republic is our chance to put the power and sovereignty in the people’s hands. It would improve and strengthen our democracy by giving the Australian people the choice of who leads and represents them on the world stage. Instead of a foreign noble who was literally born-to-rule, we’d have an Australian elected by Australians with the skills and experience to do the job, to proudly represent who we are as a people and to champion our country. It would codify the powers of both the Head of State and the Head of Government – confining their power to that which is gifted by the Australian people.
The Australian Constitution doesn’t define the role of the Prime Minister, nor does it set out any real rights, including the right to vote – a republic would change that. It would make our Head of State accountable to the people through elections and institutions, such as the National Anti-Corruption Commission, something unthinkable for our current foreign-based Monarch or his outsourced local representative. A republic would throw light on the operations of government and increase transparency reminding our leaders that they work for the people – not the other way around.
We aren’t servants of the Crown – we’re citizens of Australia – although that might be news to the Monarch who asked us to pledge allegiance to him when he became King. Our parliamentarians and military swear allegiance to the King and his heirs and successors, not to Australia, the Australian people or their best interests, not even to the laws and Constitution of Australia – and that needs to change too.
I’ve been asked how a republic would improve the day-to-day lives of Australians. Quite simply, a republic would put our Head of State to work full-time on promoting Australia and representing the Australian people. Recently, the King of Australia has lobbied for British industry and trade relationships in visits to France and Germany – even though he hasn’t found time to even visit Australia, let alone promote our country and our industries. His son, Prince William, Australia’s future King has gone one step further and has actively lobbied against Australia hosting the World Cup to secure votes for England to host a future event. These aren’t even split loyalties. The Royals are British and are fighting for Britain – that’s fine, Britain can have them. We need our own Head of State advocating on equal footing for Australia.
A republic is about 21st Century democracy, as opposed to medieval Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses who don’t serve the Australian people. It’s about people living now in the 2020s, not those living in the 1800s when the Constitution was written. It’s about the sovereignty of the people, not one British man. It’s about strengthening our democracy. Like the car and truck replaced the horse and cart, and didn’t stop but in fact enhanced travel and trade, a republic is a way to do democracy better and move with the times.
With all of this in mind, we recently launched our new website which goes in some way to starting the conversation with the Australian people on the benefits of a republic. I say conversation, because that is exactly what it is a discussion with all Australians on the future of our nation and strengthening our democracy – and that conversation and future has the Australian people at its heart, not a foreign Monarch.
We’ve also released our new Strategic Plan, setting out ARM’s vision, mission, objectives and values. Our vision is for an Australian to serve as our Head of State. Our mission is to secure a referendum and run a winning campaign for the republic. Our objectives can be summarised as ARM being fit-for-purpose, and advocating and engaging to deliver our vision and mission. Our values are Unity and Belonging, Equality and Aspiration, Democracy and Choice, Non-Partisanship and Collaboration, Integrity and Leadership. These are values we as an organisation will live by, but also what we would hope to see reflected in a future Australian republic.
As part of the conversation with the Australian people, ARM will be hosting events throughout 2024. We will be discussing the republic from the beaches to the bush, from the cities to the country, state by state, online and in-person throughout Australia. ARM will be the facilitator and will help design the People’s Model for an Australian Republic. It won’t be ARM’s model or the Government’s or even the Parliament’s – it will be the People’s Model. These conversations will be open to all Australians, regardless of their feelings for or knowledge of the republic. We’re not starting with a blank sheet of paper – we have our current system, the Australian Choice Model and various international models, like the Irish Presidential Model, from which we can build a model unique to Australia. We will announce dates in coming months, but if you would like to support ARM in delivering these engagement sessions through financial or other means, please let me know. We will also be coordinating events around Charles and Camillas’ visit in October.
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Please make a contribution today.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our members for their ongoing commitment and support for the ARM. Your passion and motivation are wonderful and welcomed. You have the power to influence, educate and change minds, so start your own local engagement tour and have a chat to friends and family about joining or contributing to ARM, and start a conversation about the republic, what it means to you and why you support it, and how it will benefit all Australians by strengthening our democracy.
I also want to thank all of those incredible Australians who have made contributions to ARM this year. Running a national conversation and campaign is not cheap, and your support to date has helped us keep the republic on the agenda – so thank you. The next step as we ramp up and implement our strategic plan will require significant investment and so I would ask everyone who is passionate about an Australian republic to please think about making a contribution to ARM. Every contribution whether large or small is gratefully received and will be put to good use. Now is the time to harness the high levels of public support to make history and improve our system for our children and grandchildren – so please reach out if you can contribute.
I want to thank the National Committee for giving me the opportunity to serve as National Director and CEO. I’ve been passionate about the republic for as long as I can remember and I’m so thrilled to be on board. I also want to thank the National Office team for all their work, support and dedication to the movement. Alita and Rachel work incredibly hard and they do a remarkable job – so thank you both.
I congratulate all of our new Branch Councils and look forward to working with you all over the next few years. People power wins elections and we have dedicated teams in every state and territory who are committed to having the conversation with the Australian people and to campaigning to start the next chapter in Australia’s story – so thank you all for being involved. If you would like to reach out to your local Branch to see how you can get involved there is a new dedicated page on our website.
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On behalf of the National Committee, staff and members of the ARM, I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas, happy holidays and fantastic summer break! If you’re travelling this year, please stay safe, particularly on our roads. I look forward to working and engaging with you all in what is shaping up to be an exciting new year on our journey towards an Australian republic!
All the best and have yourself a merry little Christmas!
Kind Regards,
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