Queensland leads push for republic

A NATIONAL campaign to rally support for Australia becoming a will be launched in Queensland.

The Real Republic movement will kick off in Townsville in March, before moving to other regional towns and cities in the Sunshine State and then the rest of the country.

“The critical challenge is to get people debating this important issue,” said Brisbane lawyer David Muir, who is leading the push.

The campaign was already being planned but has taken on greater impetus off the back of comments by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that a postal vote could be used to determine how a president would be elected. Mr Muir argues the 1999 referendum failed largely because of the proposed model of a president being chosen by Parliament in a bipartisan twothirds majority vote.