Australian leaders ignite push for republic

The movement has quadrupled its membership over the past year, he said, with republican Malcolm Turnbull’s arrival as Prime Minister also boosting the cause.

He declared that while his “commitment to Australia having Australian as head of state is undiminished”, he believes the role should remain unchanged until Queen Elizabeth II’s death, according to Australia’s Herald Sun.

“Australia can do better than to find our heads of state from one family of unelected English people living in a palace in England”.

“Never before have the stars of the Southern Cross been so aligned in pointing to the dawn of a new republican age for Australia”, FitzSimons said, adding a referendum on the issue is now the next step.

Although Mr Turnball is a former head of the Australian Republican Movement and he has recently confirmed his view on the issue remains unchanged, he has also said he doesn’t believe another referendum on becoming a republic will be held until the Queen’s reign ends.

“I don’t think there’s any chance New Zealand is going to become a republic anytime soon”.

When then prime minister Tony Abbott knighted the Queen’s husband Prince Philip last Australia Day, it was met with ridicule and disbelief. “We have to do it in our own time, at our own pace”. Gabrielle Hendry, spokeswoman for the Australian Monarchist League, said that only a small percentage of Australia’s 16 million eligible voters had signed the petition.

THE Greens have called for a timetable for a referendum on Australia becoming a republic, after seven of the eight state and territory leaders backed the proposal.

Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to resuscitate the struggling republic debate, with state and territory leaders near-unanimous in their support for an Australian head of state. “I think that will be the next watershed event, if you like, to make that issue relevant”.

We can do it while her majesty is still young enough to travel to this country, at which point, instead of bowing, curtsying and scraping… instead of that, as a nation we could rise as one, give her a standing ovation, and say “Thank you, your majesty, for the sterling service you have provided our nation”.

‘I say to the prime minister, let us work together to seize this moment, to lead the movement for change, ‘ Mr Shorten said.

‘Remember, if you don’t like our democratic rights, liberties and laws, equality for all, including women – gay and indigenous people – there are plenty of other countries to choose from, ‘ Senator Lambie said. Peter FitzSimons from the movement said the declaration, along with an online petition signed by nearly 4,000 people, shows that how much the country wants to become an independent nation.