Australia calls for vote against monarchy

Country’s treasurer leads renewed push for a republic, while campaigners argue for a national referendum within five years

AUSTRALIAN campaigners are calling for a vote on breaking away from the British monarchy within five years as the country’s federal treasurer leads a renewed push for a republic.

Peter FitzSimons, the newly appointed chairman of the Australian Republican Movement (ARM), argued for a national plebiscite within five years, to be followed by a constitutional referendum, in a rousing speech in Canberra yesterday.

Mr FitzSimons said that Joe Hockey, the federal treasurer, was co-convener of a new parliamentary advocacy group supporting an Australian republic – which will pit him against his prime minister, Tony Abbott, once leader of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (ACM).

He said a plebiscite asking for a simple “yes” or “no” about having an Australian head of state would produce a powerful “yes” result.

Recent polling suggests that 47 per cent of Australians support replacing the Queen as head of state.

Mr Hockey, who belongs to the ruling Liberal Party, is a long-time member of ARM and supported the failed republican bid in the 1999 referendum.

The announcement comes at an awkward time for the treasurer, who has been focused on taxation reform and dousing fears of market volatility. He drew a mixed reaction from political colleagues yesterday, with some suggesting he should keep his focus on the economy. Dean Smith, a fellow Liberal and a supporter of the monarchy, said the campaign was “most definitely a distraction”, according to ABC.

But the treasurer, whose position is the Australian equivalent of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, defended the move. “Mr Hockey has long advocated his views on this issue,” a spokeswoman told The Daily Telegraph. “Those views haven’t changed.”

Tim Mayfield, ARM’s national director, said the movement had been set back by the referendum loss in 1999 but denied it had been dormant since then. “The movement’s done a lot but it’s been an uphill battle because people haven’t been interested. There just wasn’t the political will,” Mr Mayfield said.

He said he was “confident” that the republican movement’s moment had arrived and people were ready to vote for a change. While Mr Mayfield said his group was not party-political, he conceded that a republic would not be achievable “if Tony Abbott stays in power for 10 years”.

There was less support within the ruling coalition than within other political parties, he said.

“Hopefully the stars will align and we will get an Australian prime minister and an Australian opposition leader who are both republicans,” Mr FitzSimons said.

Meanwhile, Professor Emeritus David Flint, the ACM national convener, dismissed the campaign as a “complete folly”. He said there was less mood for change now than in 1999 when the referendum was defeated “not only na- tionally, but in every state, and in 72 per cent of electorates – which gives you some idea of the concentration of the republican vote in the elitist innercity electorates”.

“It’s just not on the cards, in my humble opinion,” Prof Flint said, describing supporters of the republic as “chardonnay socialists” and “elitists”.

“I admire the Queen of England, I really do,” Mr FitzSimons told The Daily

Telegraph. “But the notion of the monarchists standing in front of Buckingham Palace, defending the most elitist institution in the world, throwing rocks at republicans and shouting ‘ you elitists’, is so ludicrous it simply takes my breath away.”

‘The notion of monarchists defending the most elitist institution in the world is so ludicrous’