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Republic of Australia – still a worthwhile aim

20th October 2011
By Brian Boyd, VTHC Secretary

The Queen of England is on a visit to Australia. We hope she has a good time and even spends some badly needed ‘tourist’ dollars.

Australian actor Hugh Jackman recently met the Queen in London. He commented along the lines that most Australians thought kindly of her and this benign view ‘transcended’ the ‘republican sentiment amongst Australians’.

On the other side of the fence, ardent, obsessive Sydney based monarchist David Flint bemoaned in the media he hadn’t received an invitation to meet her during what has been deemed her last visit ‘down under’. Some media have speculated again that when Prince Charles takes over as King of England, the remaining monarchist sympathy in Australia will drastically shrink.

Regardless the question of re-addressing the republican debate in general and changing the flag to reflect a more independent nation in particular, are not dependant on the popularity or otherwise of the Queen or any of her family. It’s about us as Australians, first and foremost.

The conservatives want the discussion to be about the Royal Family, they want it to be about ‘ties’ with the ‘mother country’, because if the discussion is about the past and not about the future, the lingering class privileges of old can be held on to by the few. This is in contrast to the potential for wider opportunities for upcoming generations to be explored, under a refreshed, re-positioned, independent nation taking its place in an ever changing world order.

Back on the 29 January this year, The Age newspaper editorialised: “Change is blowing in the wind PM…. Australia needs a better symbol of its nationhood”.

The Age was commenting on Julia Gillard’s opportunist, conservative claim on Australia Day that she was “a big advocate of the current Australian flag…we love it”. Gillard was endorsing a flag that is debased by having a British ‘Union Jack’ imposed in the top left hand corner overshadowing the stars of the Southern Cross.

The editorial raised the issue that for a modern advanced country it does matter what flag we present to the world. We can change it to reflect our nationhood in a better way, it said.

Canada offers us a way forward for considering a new Australian Flag. After a healthy, robust country-wide debate, Canada adopted the now famous, distinctive maple leaf flag in 1965, replacing a red ensign flag dominated by a ‘union jack’ in the top left hand corner.

The sky didn’t fall in over Canada back in 1965. The Queen of England and some of her relations have had great times visiting Canada since then, without discord or controversy.

Of course changing our national flag doesn’t solve all of the political, social and economic problems facing Australia.

But it would be great to move on from a key colonial trapping of the past and look the rest of the world in the eye, with a greater sense of country and self-respect.