Kate Ellis (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was struck by a few of the things that Tony Blair had to say during his address to the parliament today. I was particularly interested when he spoke of a speech he once wrote about Britain having to become a young country again—and it was a country like Australia that he had in mind. As we all know, Australia has a brief but proud history of continuing to strive for greater advancement in becoming an ever increasingly wonderful nation. It is with this in mind that I believe we should continue the struggle to become a republic.

Just two weeks ago, the Minister for Finance and Administration, Nick Minchin, and I had the opportunity to speak at Flinders University during a first-year politics lecture. We addressed the issue of whether or not Australia should become a republic; I addressed the merits and Nick put the opposing point of view. I would thank the organisers and students at Flinders University for allowing us to attend, but I would also thank the finance minister. I think it is wonderful that somebody as busy as he is would make time available to continue what I believe is such an important debate in this country. It is great to see that this debate is still going strong. The 1999 referendum certainly was not the end of the story. There is much interest among many young people and I hope that we will see some proud republicans continuing the struggle into the future.

I am a strong believer that not only the policies but also the structures of the Australian government must be reflective of the views of the Australian people. For this reason, I will continue to argue that Australians need a fair go in the industrial relations sector; but also for this reason I believe that a monarchy is not reflective at all of the values that Australians hold dear. As Australians, we pride ourselves on striving for an egalitarian nation—and I do not think that is reflected at all in the monarchy and in our head of state being decided by birth right as opposed to merit.

I also believe that one of the most disappointing things about this House is the lack of time that we devote to talking about Australia’s long-term future—about our vision for the nation going forward and how we will set this vision out to the Australian people and then unite them in working towards it. This is a great shame. Understandably, we are caught up in day-to-day matters, but I think it is very important—particularly at a time when we are focusing so much on what divides us as Australians and what is un-Australian in our society—that we talk about what unites us, such as our national identity and structures, and about ways that we can foster a united future going forward. It is my firm belief that having an Australian head of state is an albeit symbolic but very important way for Australia to go forward as a united country.

With the Commonwealth Games, I think it is also timely that we talk about the things we would not be giving up if Australia were to become a republic. I found it interesting in watching the games—which I enjoyed, like millions of other Australians—to see that, of 53 countries who are members of the Commonwealth, 31 are now republics and have their own head of state. There is absolutely no reason why Australia would have to give up any of our links or very close relationships with these countries in order to go forward with our own head of state.

I must also confess at this point that a number of weeks ago I went to see the Queen and I thoroughly enjoyed the occasion—although not quite as much as my mother, who was my date for the evening. Like many republicans, I do not have any problems with the Queen; she seems to be a very nice lady. But I do not necessarily see the monarchy’s role in our nation going forward.

Australia is a strong and independent nation and every member of this House is happy that is the case. However, I think that also means we need to look at its structures and make sure that they reflect this fact—not only to ourselves as a nation but also to the rest of the world—and that we make sure that, going forward, Australians all work towards continuing that proud tradition of striving for greater achievement and making sure that history students in times to come can look back on our generation and say that we continued to keep the ball rolling on Australia’s development into the future.