More challenges ahead for republican cause
Sydney
Almost 10 years after Australians overwhelmingly rejected cutting links with the British crown, the question of a republic is back on the agenda. Or so the republican diehards would like to believe.
A national survey of voters has found that 52 per cent now believe that Australia should become a republic, while 40 per cent remain fiercely opposed to change. Republican activists have seized on the poll as evidence of a sea change in the way Australians see their constitutional future. The referendum in 1999 imploded when republicans started fighting among themselves.
Anti-monarchists have also taken heart from the elevation of Malcolm Turnbull, a former head of the republican movement, to opposition leader and the appointment of Quentin Bryce, a pioneering feminist lawyer, as governor general - the first woman in 107 years to hold that post.
Having avowed republicans at the head of both major political parties is a significant shift - former Liberal prime minister John Howard was a died-in-the-wool monarchist. But Mr Turnbull has been quick to say nothing should happen while the current monarch is on the throne. Under the constitution, Her Majesty is queen of Australia and can only be removed by a referendum passed by a majority of voters in a majority of states.
Since the conservative side of Australian politics has traditionally regarded the monarchy as sacrosanct - backed by rural voters, the over-50s and returned servicemen - the Labor Party couldn't resist baiting the new Liberal leader. Would Mr Turnbull join bipartisan discussions about achieving a republic, wondered Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
Sensing a trap, the Liberal leader wisely declined - accusing Mr Rudd of playing politics. 'A prime minister that tries to run the republican issue now during the queen's reign has got motives that are not republican motives,' he fumed.
The appointment of a female governor general has also proved to be a false dawn. Mrs Bryce seems unwilling to tinker with the status quo. In a candid interview on television, she was fulsome in her praise for the queen. 'I recently visited Her Majesty at Balmoral Castle, and she is always very warm and welcoming. When I walk away from meeting her, the words that come into my mind are about 'service' and 'duty'.'
Mrs Bryce, 65, was less forthcoming about the prospect of Australia becoming a republic; according to protocol, governors general are not allowed to express opinions about issues of the day. She chose her words carefully.
'We are a maturing and evolving society; of course our parliamentary democracy is too,' she said.
You could almost hear the collective sigh from monarchists. Professor David Flint, national convenor of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, could hardly disguise his glee. 'No more money should be diverted ... to subsidise the republicans in this folly,' he said.
Although the Rudd government is formally committed to an Australian republic, achieving it looks as difficult now as in 1999. Perhaps even more so. Replacing Queen Elizabeth II and her successors will prove to be a hazardous, divisive and time-consuming endeavour.
