Sunset on the Empire?

Australia is much farther down the road to republicanism than Canada is. A referendum is scheduled for late in 1999 on whether to abolish the monarchy by 2001

Australians have always been more fiercely independent than most other former British colonies, and they have never been fans of the stuffy British class-based pomp that the monarchy seems to symbolize.

So, it was no surprise when a majority of delegates at Australia's Constitutional Conference in February 1998 voted to break with the British monarchy, and start the move to becoming a republic. The vote was 89 in favour to 52 opposed, with 11 abstentions. The delegates included 76 citizens elected in 1998 through a nationwide mail vote, 36 prominent people appointed by the federal government, and 40 politicians from federal, state, and territorial parliaments.

Australia's six states and two territories have been independent since 1901, but, as with many other Commonwealth nations, Australia still recognizes the Queen as its head of state. The country's republicans want to put an end to that and change the constitution so Australians can choose their own head of state.

More than half of Australia's 11 million voters think it's a good idea to take full charge of their country, arguing that it doesn't make a lot of sense to continue having a head of state who lives in Britain as the nation enters the 21st century. But, according to one report in February 1998, several opinion polls have shown that it's a narrow majority of Australians who want to become a republic. That's not to say the other half want a monarchy.

Most recent polls have shown that between 51% and 53% of respondents are in favour of the change, though it's been somewhat higher in the past. In September 1997, a poll of 1,200 people, found 54% favouring a republic, 30% supporting the monarchy, and 16% uncommitted. A poll of 2,100 people a year earlier showed a majority in favour of a republic in five of six Australian states: 55% of the respondents were in favour of a republic, 38% wanted to keep the monarchy. Republicans think breaking the link to the crown will strengthen the country's self-confidence and identity. And it's a sign to the country's Asian neighbours that Australia is an independent member of the Far East community, open to new ways and new trading partners.

However, according to The Economist magazine in February 1999, the republicans could be losing ground. One recent opinion poll, it reported, gave republicans only 48% of the vote, and another suggested 50%. Both polls found the young in particular were cooling to the idea of a republic. But, those figures still mark a major shift from the late 1980s. In 1988, a poll put those backing a republic at 29%, and five years later it was up to 52%.

Several events in recent history have added to the antimonarchy mindset.

Immigration patterns since the end of World War II have played a major role in changing attitudes toward the monarch. In 1945, 90% of Australian newcomers were of British or Irish origin. By the year 2000, according to census projections, that figure will have shrunk to less than 25%. The white-Australia policy kept the country very British for most of its history. Until 1973, the policy effectively barred entry to the country to all but European immigrants. Today, 46% of the population were born or their parents were born in a country without a British heritage. In the last decade or so, Australians have come to view their country as more of an Asian nation and less as an outpost of Englishness.

Robert Menzies took a new approach when he became prime minister in 1949 by taking a more active interest in Pacific and South Asian affairs than his predecessors had. He led the country for almost two decades, until 1966. At the same time, Australians questioned the Royal Family's loyalty to them. They claim that members of the Royal Family often act as trade emissaries for Britain, sometimes pushing British goods in competition with those of Australia. Some Australians also remain understandably bitter toward Britain for abandoning it during the Second World War, not giving Australia enough troops to successfully battle Japan.

The country's links to Asia were further highlighted when Britain became part of the European Union in 1973, ending the preferred status for Australian products, and creating further doubts among many Australians. After, all argued offended Australians, many of their industries were set up at Britain's request specifically to serve British markets at a time when they were all proud to be part of the Empire.

Ties with the British loosened more when Britain passed the Australia Act in 1986. The Act limited the Queen's powers, giving her authority only when she was actually in the country, and curtailed Britain's role in the country's legal system, along with direct contacts between London and the Australian states. The Australia Act has paved the way to republicanism. It removed the right to appeal to the judicial committee of the British Privy Council, the right of the U.K. Parliament to legislate for Australia, and the possible application of old imperial statutes in Australian states. Technically, the Governor-General is still appointed by the Queen but on the advice of the Prime Minister. (Canada made most of these changes before its Constitution Act of 1982.)

Under conservative coalition Prime Minister John Howard, who was elected in 1996 and reelected in 1998, it was decided a referendum on the matter was in order. Australians vote on the issue in November 1999, but the debate between monarchists and republicans continues. The Prime Minister further complicated things in February 1999 when he suggested adding a second question to the referendum on the issue of Aboriginal land claims. Given Mr. Howard's known monarchist leanings, republicans accused him of trying to confuse the main issue and wreck the republican vote. At that time, it still had not been decided exactly how to phrase the republic-versus-monarchy question in the referendum.

Deciding to become a republic is just the first move; even among republicans there's some wrangling about how the country's new chief should be chosen. Some think the president should be elected by the general population. Others favour a president appointed by a two-thirds majority of Parliament. Among decided republicans, more than two-thirds usually say they prefer an elected president over one appointed by Parliament. Politicians aren't thrilled with this idea. An elected president, they argue, could be less a figurehead and more a political rival to the prime minister.

Under Australia's constitutional rules, the final stage of any change would be the formal approval of legislation by the Queen's representative, the Governor-General. Basically, it's up to the Queen to eliminate her position, and apparently, she says she'll support whatever the Australians want.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES:

1. Sydney lawyer and monarchist Lloyd Waddy was quoted in Time magazine in 1993 as saying: "The fundamental benefit of the monarchy is not the power it has, but the power it denies others." Discuss this view.

2. In Australia, many Aborigines see the colonization of the continent as a great tragedy and welcome constitutional changes that would recognize Aborginal people and help them reclaim their land. Explain how becoming a republic could help them in this goal.

3. Australia's southern neighbours in New Zealand are depicted as somewhat more loyal to the Queen. But many think that if Australia becomes a republic, New Zealand mill not be far behind. Report on how New Zealanders feel about cutting ties with the crown.

FACT FILE

In Australia, the Queen is widely known as Betty Windsor.

In August 1995, New South Wales announced plans to replace the public holiday celebrating the Queen's birthday with a holiday to mark the end of the Second World War.

In 1995, the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy had 13,000 members and the Australian Republican Movement had about 5,000.

RELATED ARTICLE: BACKING THE QUEEN

Monarchists in Australia, including Prime Minister John Howard, don't see anything wrong with having the Queen as head of state. To them, the Queen's presence provides strength and stability. Mr. Howard reportedly said he sees the change to a republic as pointless. Nevertheless, the Australian government funded a $30 million campaign to publicize the process of becoming a republic and the arguments for and against the move.

Critics dismissed the debate and 10-day constitutional convention in February 1998 as a cynical political diversion from other troubling issues such as unemployment, crime, and Aboriginal reconciliation.

RELATED ARTICLE: TWO PEAS IN A POD

Australia is similar to Canada in many ways. Both are large countries with small populations. Australia is four-fifths the size of Canada and has a population of 18,260,863 (1996) compared with Canada's 28,820,671 (1996). The population of the two countries is concentrated in a narrow strip: in Australia around the coast, in Canada along the southern border. Each has a huge, thinly populated desert: Canada's frozen Arctic and Australia's sun-baked interior. Both are heavily dependent upon the export of natural-resource products.

The two countries became independent federations of former British colonies (Canada in 1867, Australia in 1901), and their parliamentary structures of federal government are similar. Immigrants have played a major role in developing their economies, and both have been culturally threatened by foreign investors.

Both countries expanded westward as a result of companies exploiting the land commercially: in Australia, the Australian Agricultural Co. and Van Diemen's Land Co. produced wool; in Canada, the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company were in the fur trade.

Their common British heritage can be seen in similar place-names. Names such as Sydney, Victoria, Cobourg, Perth, and Prince of Wales.

They also have a history of sharing prominent people. Francis Forbes, for example, was chief justice of Newfoundland from 1816 to 1823. He became first chief justice of New South Wales, a job he held from 1823 to 1837.

The two countries were in touch increasingly between Canadian Confederation and World War II. They frequently discussed matters of education, health, transport, communication, immigration restriction, and agriculture. The Canadian medical and health care systems, for example, were prototypes for Australia's Medibank in the 1970s.

Comparisons have also been made in the nationalism expressed artistically in work of Canada's Group of Seven and the Australian Heidelberg School, a group of Melbourne painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

And, to their mutual discredit, both countries have a history of treating their Native people in a manner that can only be described as disgraceful.

When Britain settled Australia, it declared the land to be terra nullius - land that belonged to no one. The Aborigines, who had lived there for 40,000 years, were completely ignored. The Native population soon became second-class people after the British arrived, and for 200 years they have been stripped of their land and forced to live in poverty. They were not even considered citizens of Australia until the 1970s.

The British similarly dismissed Canada's Native people, taking land from people who had no concept of individual ownership, and destroying their culture and way of life.

RELATED ARTICLE: PLEASE, DO NOT TOUCH

In 1992, Australia's then Prime Minister, Paul Keating did the unthinkable. When the Queen visited the country to celebrate the 150th anniversary of New South Wales, Mr. Keating reportedly "offended royal protocol by putting his arm around the Queen to guide her gently around a room full of people wishing to be introduced." Thus, started the release of "outraged press reports," as no one is supposed to touch the Queen.

Mr. Keating's Dutch-born wife added to the insult when she apparently neglected to curtsey to the Queen.

Websites

Australian Institute of International Affairs - http:// www.chilli.net.au/~mcgarvie /maintain_democracy.html

Pro-monarchists - http://www.interlog.com/ ~rakshan/paus.html

Monarchists, Royalists, and Republicans - http:// users.netcon.net.au/ wcrest/monarchists/index.htm