Menzies House

A Republic is a dead duck?

Joshua Gibbins offers a young person's observation on the seemingly evaporated notion of Australia becoming a Republic.

It is truly sad for all Australian Republicans who still wish to see an end to the monarchy in their lifetime.

It seems that now, even after Australia’s biggest republican pressure group has gone to such lengths, and raised so much money; a republic is still far from achievable.

The Australian Republican Movement since, rebranding itself ‘Our Identity’, seems to have moved away from the old arguments about hereditary rule and similar spent and tired arguments.

The Australian Republican Movement now seem to be trying to run a positive campaign that, as David Morris says, ‘brings people together’.

Now the Australian Republican Movement is talking about the ‘Australian identity’, multiculturalism, and what the Australian general public perceives to be ‘Australian’.

Ironically, for a pressure group that talks about Australia having an identity problem and wanting to unify all Australians, the pressure group has rebranded itself ‘our identity’, changing its logo, webpage and webpage URL, leaving little trace of their former identity.

Why QCs must be reinstated

Joshua Gibbins argues for the reinstatement of the title of Queen's Council:

Australia is a constitutional monarchy, and with monarchy comes the symbols, titles and patronages that represent the soverign.

Whether it’s the monarch’s coat of arms, the lion and unicorn aloft government buildings, the monarch’s portrait hanging for all to see in government and public buildings, or knighthoods bestowed by the monarch. These things are all part of the monarchy that Australia is a part of and has been a part of since it was first colonised by Britain.

Sadly, over the last 20 years, republicans that have risen to power and have used the extent of their power either at all levels of government to remove and hide these symbols.

In effect, these people are removing parts of Australia’s traditions,  and some of Australia’s oldest national identity and heritage.

This is why I believe that, although it may have little significance to the monarchy directly, that the title of ‘Queen's Counsel’ should be reinstates.

Royal Visit to Victoria

Joshua Gibbins reflects on the Queen's visit to Victoria:

The Queen’s visit to Australian October, or to be even more specific, Melbourne, has proven to of been a success, just like in all the other states that their Majesties visited.

On the Queens Visit to Victoria the Queen opened the new Royal Children’s hospital building, gave a thrilling speech in the morning and then got to walk around the new building, meeting staff of the Royal children’s.

Then after Her Majesty opened the new Royal Children’s building it was onto Federation square in the Heart of Melbourne to see and great the people that wished to see Her Majesty.

People had been lined up at Federation square since 6am that morning so they could get in the front rows of the lines to see their Majesties and with flowers wrapped up in foil so not to be too damaged by the heat of the afternoon.

Even from the early hours of 11am with the royal visit scheduled for 1pm Federation square was packed with people lining up to see their Queen, people had come from all over Victoria just to come see the Queen for this one brief instance.

There was a man dressed in an old Tram, clippie uniform, from the 50s and 60s walking around giving out cards and old fashioned tram tickets asking people what they thought the Royal tram would look like. 

Australian Republicans, British Passports

Joshua Gibbins

There is an argument that comes around every now and then that I have noticed, and I fell it should be addressed as best it can be.

Australian Republicans occasionally use the fact that they have to use the ‘all other passports’ line at Heathrow airport in England and not the ‘European union and British passports’ line as a reason to become a republic, or that it’s a reason why they support a republic.
For some examples there is a few blog posts on the blog site Independent Australia, one of these posts is a story about how a man named Jock McGregor and how he became a republican when he arrived at Heathrow, and having to line up in the ‘all other passports’ line.

Some extracts from the blog post mentioned above here:

Jock was the proud holder of an Australian passport. He had served in the Royal Australian Air Force during WWII and had been seconded to the Royal Air Force in the U.K.

On the flight from Brisbane to London Jock was seated beside a German gentleman and after a while they got to talking.

When they arrived at Heathrow Airport both Jock and his German friend disembarked. To Jock’s surprise he found that there were two queues for Immigration and Customs.

One line was for European Community passport holders and the other was  marked “Others.” As Jock and Margaret waited in the “Others” queue with fellow Australians, New Zealanders and Canadians they saw the former Luftwaffe pilot whizz through with a cheery wave along with Britons returning home.

A more recent time of this argument was made by the ARM at the South Australian Secondary Schools State Constitutional Convention which can be found here

And if we are forced to stay as a Monarchy, we would want to land at Heathrow and be given some status. At the moment we go behind those from the EU and the Swiss, who are not even in the EU. We fall in with the Chinese and Russians, at the end of the line. Not particularly the sort of welcome one would expect from our own Monarch.

First off, in the blog post about the man at Heathrow that had to stand in line while ‘the former Luftwaffe pilot whizz through with a cheery wave along with Britons returning home’

While it is True that Australian’s have to line up in the ‘other passports’ line it’s nowhere near as bad or degrading as these people have made out it is.

When an Australian gets off the plane into Heathrow you line up like everyone else, keep in mind however that Heathrow airport is a central hub and hundreds of thousands of people go in and out of the airport daily from all over the world.

Waiting in line at Heathrow really isn’t that bad, it really depends on how many flights come in at the same time as your own and which terminal you’re at.

Once you have gotten to the head of the line, you just show your passport, and tell the Border agency officer at the desk where you’re staying for the first night, the Border agency officer doesn’t ask to see a Visa because Australian’s don’t need Visa’s when you go to Great Britain for  6 months or less.

Then you can go through, collect your luggage and be about your business trying to figure out how to get to the Heathrow express train into London.

On the contrary to these republicans that seem to get offended by this difference in passport, they are virtually the same.

Republicans should also note that if you are an Australian under the age of 30 you can be granted a visa that lasts for 2 years and you can live and work in Great Britain without requiring a job or sponsor called a ‘youth mobility scheme’ which Canada and new Zealand are also involved with.

So this leaves me to wonder are Australian Republicans just really touchy and expect some sort of special treatment. Or do they secretly wish to be British subjects again and be granted their old British passports once more?

Joshua Gibbins is a 22 year old constitutional monarchist, studying a Diploma in Library and Cultural Studies