Australia Day
It is Australia Day, and disloyalty is back on the front pages. Republicans use the day for publicity for rejecting the symbol of nationhood that began modern Australia on this day. We are still to reconcile this with the effects on our ancient Aboriginal Cultures. Australia Day itself is remains divisive but apart from diverting attention, claims for a Republic polarise our population, on a day that should unite us all.
What some Republicans want
Republicanism appears very much like a Communist Plot. At the risk of sounding paranoid and seeing “reds
under the bed”, it is a reasonable conclusion after analysis. When Republicans speak of “independence” they
do not make it clear in what topics or departments they want Australia to be “independent”. Presumably, Defence and Intelligence are high
on the agenda, though they are never mentioned, and indeed probably never
should be by its very nature. However,
the shared Crown means we are part of the “Anglo Alliance” without needing to
develop formal Treaties.
Our System of Government
One difference between our Monarchy and all constructed
Republics is that much of what we do and our rights and responsibilities are
the result of Ancient Custom and not Regulation. This is an equivalent of the “Common Law”
system, where what was done in the past determine the Law, not
Legislation. When Government is created
from scratch, the behaviour of any President is something for any incumbent to
determine according to their own ideas.
In our Realm, a Governor-General and Governors must be mindful that they
wear the cloak of the Monarch, so to speak.
Even in a totally independent country, as is Australia, we derive from
our Monarch, the manner, behaviour and the ways of doing the Top Job, iIn particular,
the principle of remaining apart from and above all political issues. It must be noted that it doesis not dependent
on the actual person of the Monarch, but in the institution of the crown, where
these very conventions have resulted from many centuries of trial and error as
well as wars and revolutions.
A Choice we need not make
We have inherited a system of government that we are lucky
to have and that is worth preserving.
There are some amongst the Academic and Political Communities
who argue that Australia must choose sides in cross-Pacific rivalry that is
shaping up between the People’s Republic of the Central Kingdom of China the
United States of America. Clearly
however, China does not see any need for any Country to choose sides between
warring enemies with whom one wants to trade, because President Xi Jing Ping
went to Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran on consecutive days, with a policy of
not interfering in other countries internal Civil Rights or their international
disputes. Despite this, there are still
people in Australia who would see Australia cease all alliances with the United
States of America, including their Military bases here. Some anticipate a Swiss form of neutrality,
though that is unlikely to be realistic, while others would like to see us move
closer to China, the great bastion of Marxist Communism. These people are Republican Activists, but
keep their Communist sympathies well hidden.
Plot?
Perhaps “plot” is too strong a word, but there is an element
of “conspiracy” where the Communists and Beijing sympathisers are joined by
Socialists, liberals, New Age idealists and others. There is no public mention of the ultimate
purpose of their scheme, which would drive many tepid supporters away. It is one thing to keep a campaign simple and
select a single slogan, but it must not be used to camouflage other purposes
and objectives that are kept secret from the population at large.
In this case the misleading claim that either our Governors
and Governor General are not de facto
Head of State, or that they take orders from White Hall or Westminster, both of
which are false claims.
Needed Social Change
We need a united Australia.
Instead of campaigning to end the popular Monarchy, the Political
Academics should be fixing the detail in our Social Structures, not hoping a
grand gesture with a symbolic change would somehow trickle down to other
improvements.
Who are the Republicans?
Like the Wealthy Elite, the Intellectual Elite is between
five and ten percent of the population.
They fill most Professorial Chairs and many of the Legal Benches and
most of the Fourth Estate, the Press. It
is clearly not an issue that concerns most Australians. Their aim is to convince a bare majority of
voters in a majority of States to go along with the myth of “Australian
independence” as if it were a code word for “national identity”, turning the
issue into a “motherhood statement”.
Gaining nothing
No Cost-Benefit Analysis has been done. It would show we have far more to lose than to
gain. We already have full “independence”
in every sense of the word so we gain nothing there. If it is a topic in Trade or Treaty
Negotiations, where Republics are intrigued by or retention of the Crown, it
does not hinder those negotiations, and if anything makes Australia distinctive
and different from the hundred or so other middle-sized Republics. In a competitive world, “brand distinction”
should be preserved.
Losing much
Many ordinary People that are not part of a Power Elite,
derive a lot of pleasure from our Monarchy.
The destruction of the Monarchy would deprive us of this pleasure. It is not a Legal or administrative argument
for retaining the Monarchy, but it should trump win the debate. The claim that we would still welcome the
Royals when a Republic is meaningless, because if they would be just “foreign
royals”, like some from Scandinavian or other Monarchies, who are largely ignored.
Elitism
While there is a risk of the Monarchy becoming a Soap Opera
with interest in our Royal Family as Celebrities, this interest only exists
because of who they actually are. It is
only because our Monarch is Sovereign in many countries, our Crown is so widely
shared, that our Royal Family have such extreme, international public interest. England will almost certainly keep the
Monarchy, even if only for Tourism, though the break-up of the United Kingdom
is unlikely despite considerable, misguided support. Then, the Royals would
hold as much international interest as some of the African or Himalayan
Monarchies, which is very little. It is “sour grapes” for people who think they
are superior to the rest of us to want to deprive us of this simple
pleasure.
