I don’t think any different reaction to the Governance stream report from the weekend’s 2020 shindig would have been forthcoming from Australia’s Monarchist elites, than what was spewed forth today.
Typically, ‘Dolly’ Downer and David Flint led the way. A couple of prime candidates for any Silver Spooner award which might be up for the offing. Clearly, to be a monarchist, one must have that ‘born to rule’, “oh, I say” mentality with the nasal voice inflection to match. Both ‘Dolly’ and Flint meet the criteria.
All elitist exclusionism aside, I looked at the 2020 website which lists the names of all participants, and strangely enough I noticed that none have a declaration of Republican or Monarchist against their name. That is undoubtedly because the focus of the summit was not to install the impetus for a republic, because that impetus already exists. Has existed fervently, among republicans like myself, since the Whitlam era. Most likely, long before that time as well. That a majority chose to voice a desire to push once again for the opportunity to change Australia’s position from one of obeisance to a long failed empirical ownership ethos, to one of real ownership of time and place in the here and now, is not to be wondered at. Australia, in the 21st Century, still does not know who she is. Her citizens still do not recognise themselves as independent on the face of the globe, but as a part of the Commonwealth of British Colonies.
Monarchists continually fail to acknowledge that the 1999 referendum, sponsored by a devoutly monarchistic government promoting a deliberately constructed republican model which constrained real power within the elected government of the day – a devoutly monarchistic government – failed because of the way it was sponsored and presented. The Howard government went out of it’s way to promote a model which internal sources knew the majority of republican proponents would not support. The referendum failed, and rightly so. It was poorly constructed, cobbled together in a rush and purposely so. It was designed to fail.
If we are to become a republic, and it seems that a majority of Australians do support the proposal, we cannot rush the occasion. The various models need to be well and truly researched and advertised. The voting public need to be educated, not propagandised and brainwashed. In short, we – the voting public – deserve to be treated like the independent, thinking individuals we are. Not the mushrooms some would prefer we would be. Isn’t that right, ‘Dolly’?