Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull once
remarked that to have Prince Charles as king as Australia’s head of state was unthinkable.
Now, with the Queen at 90, he may be rethinking
the unthinkable.
But will Australians really countenance a
continuation of our head of state sitting upon a throne on the far side of the
earth? Will it not be time at last, then, for Australians to have a head of
state who as Paul Keating put it simply, is “one of us”.
All too often when the matter of a republic
is discussed, the argument is that there are “more important things” to deal
with, and that “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”
Yes there are always crucial matters in
people’s lives to be debated and dealt with, like the economy, climate change, education,
health, welfare and the environment, but is it not crucial to our development
as a nation and people that we create at last our full own identity?
Walk down any city street and you will see
we are no longer an outpost of any long-faded British Empire. You will see the
faces of people from throughout the world who have come to call Australia home,
in an ongoing and largely unsung triumph of multiculturalism.
What is the relevance to us as a people of
a British monarch, then, other than that we can’t be bothered enough to change
it?
Why do we still have the flag of a
colonising power in the top left hand corner of our own? Are we still so short
of maturity as a nation that we need that reassurance? We seem more interested
in almost everything else beyond our own identity and place in the world.
Well, it’s time we grew up.
The North American colonies went to war with
Britain for their independence, and India under the determined and lengthy nonviolent
strategy of Mahatma Gandhi wore down British resistance to letting the “jewel
in the crown” go its own way. Next year the Indian republic will be turn 70.
Given the opportunity back in 1999, we
Australians couldn’t even vote for a
republic. Yes there are questions about how the debate was framed by then prime
minister John Howard, but the case for a republic was vigorously pushed by the
then leader of the movement, Malcolm Turnbull.
Has he really changed his spots? Or has he
put his own views to one side for the time being to allay the more conservative
wing of his own party?
When Charles is finally crowned, either by abdication or the passing of the current monarch, he may choose another name as king, or else become King Charles III, and among other titles, Australia’s Head of State.
