Posted on 11/26/2007 2:04:51 PM PST by knighthawk
Australia will hold a referendum on removing the Queen as head of state after Kevin Rudd, the Labor leader and a staunch republican, swept to power at the weekend, bringing an end to 11 years of Conservative rule.
Mr Rudd, 50, a former diplomat, has promised to hold a plebiscite on severing links with the monarchy. He said yesterday that he would withdraw Australian troops from Iraq and ratify the Kyoto pact on climate change.
With 53 percent of the vote, Mr Rudd brought an emphatic end to the 11-year tenure of John Howard, an avowed monarchist who was set last night to become the first Prime Minister since 1929 to lose his seat at a general election.
During the campaign Mr Rudd, who speaks fluent Mandarin and has lived in China, said: “Can I say, we’re going to consult the people again. We haven’t fixed a time frame for doing that, and I think the time will come before too much longer when we do have an Australian as our head of state,” Mr Howard allowed a referendum on the issue in 1999 but it was roundly rejected despite two thirds of Australian voters saying in successive polls that they wanted a Republic with an Australian head of state.
Critics of the referendum argued that it was rigged in favour of monarchists because it gave voters only the option of having Parliament elect a President and not the direct election of a head of state by the people.
Mr Rudd, who rose from an impoverished childhood in rural Queensland, has promised a plebiscite which is likely to offer a far broader means of choosing an Australian head of state. It is expected that the plebiscite would probably be held in 2010 in conjunction with the next general election.
Adding to the strong likelihood of Australia now becoming a republic was an announcement yesterday that Mr Howard’s Treasurer and heirapparent as leader of the LiberalNational Coalition, Peter Costello, was withdrawing from political life and would not seek to lead the Opposition.
It is now expected that the richest man in the Australian Parliament, a former lawyer and businessman, Malcolm Turnbull, will be elected Opposition leader later this week. Mr Turnbull, 52, is a leading republican and headed the Australian Republic movement at the time of the last referendum.
With polls showing strong support for a republic, Buckingham Palace insists that the issue can only be resolved at the ballot box. “I have always made it clear that the future of the monarchy in Australia is an issue for you, the Australian people, and you alone to decide by democratic and constitutional means. It should not be otherwise,” the Queen said during a State visit to Australia in 2000.
Mr Howard, the last avowed monarchist at the top of Australian public life, was set for an inglorious end to a career in public life by becoming only the second sitting Prime Minister in Australia to lose his seat at a general election.
The Sydney suburban parliamentary seat he has held for 33 years was expected to go to a former television newscaster, Maxine McKew. Mr Howard, 68, ignored the advice of some senior ministers that he should stand aside before the election.
Mr Rudd swept the Labor Party into office on the back of about 53 per cent of the vote compared with the Government’s 47 per cent. Computer projections show Labor on track to take at least 86 seats in Australia’s 150-seat House of Representatives.
Mr Howard was clearly unnerved by the scale of Labor’s win, which came despite his attempts throughout the campaign to sow alarm at the prospects of the party ruining Australia’s economy. Such an emphatic victory will allow Mr Rudd to begin implementing the core promises of his campaign, which include the withdrawal of Australia’s 550 troops in Iraq. Mr Rudd has said the troop withdrawal will be staged and done in consultation with the United States — which he will visit early next year. He will also the sign the Kyoto agreement on climate change on behalf of Australia — something Mr Howard had always refused to endorse.
Mr Rudd has also said he will offer a formal apology to Australian Aborigines for the injustices they have suffered at white hands.
Labor’s win sees the elevation of Australia’s first woman as deputy Prime Minister. Julia Gillard, 46, emigrated with her parents from Barry, South Glamorgan, when she was five years old. The daughter of a retired policeman, she trained as a lawyer and first came to public attention as leader of the Australian Union of Students.
Mr Rudd has three children and is independently wealthy because of the business success of his wife, Therese Rein, the founder of the Ingeus empire which bids for contracts to assist disabled people back into work.
How they stand
45%
of Australians are in favour of a republic
36%
are in favour of keeping the monarch
19%
are uncommitted to either, according to the latest poll conducted by The Australian in January 2007
Source: The Australian
I have always made it clear that the future of the monarchy in Australia is an issue for you, the Australian people, and you alone to decide by democratic and constitutional means. It should not be otherwise.
I shall continue faithfully to serve as Queen of Australia under the Constitution to the very best of my ability, as I have tried to do for the last 48 years. It is my duty to remain true to the interests of Australia and all Australians as we enter the 21st century. That is my duty. It is also my privilege and my pleasure.
The Queen, March 2000
Another question to Australian Freepers...
Is it true that Rudman pandered to Australia’s version of America’s
“values voters”?
I heard one news report that mentioned his going after the “values
voters” of Australia. But, that when asked on some interview show
when asked “Do you think Jesus is the Son of God?, he hesitated
and then launched off into a long-winded diversionary commentary about
his “well-known church attendance”...of course, never answering the question.
I’m not one that thinks politicians need to push their religional
“worldview” in order to get votes...but I do sit up when a politician
uses religion as a “lure” for votes, but then appears to be something of
an empty suit on religion.
Any thought about Rudman on this issue?
Republicans in Australia (and many other countries) want Australia to be a Republic.
I agree with the notion that Rudd has no where to go but down. The Australian economy has been booming for the last decade. Immigration law is fairly tough, boat people are thrown in deportation camps. However, taxes are already quite high and I suspect signing the Kyoto protocol will have a bad effect on the economy, especially since the one of the top Aussie exports is coal.
When HTML goes bad.
OOPS...I meant “Rudd” NOT “Rudman” (momentary synapse failure
with a substitution of a former US Senator!)
I was referring to the Leftward moves, not the monarchy. I should have made that clear.
“It gets worse...one of his main advisors is a rock star from the band Midnight Oil. Poor Australia, hope they survive.”
Yeah, it got worse.
JFnK jr?
PS First with it's Bush's fault!
Clear. I was mostly just commenting on the article itself.
Shame too to see Costello out of the picture.
“During the campaign Mr Rudd, who speaks fluent Mandarin and has lived in China...”
I will bet you Rudd’s “fluency” in Mandarin is like George’s “fluency” in Spanish…nada, zip, nothing.
Elizabeth II. Australia is part of the Commonwealth realm.
I have never believed in MONARCHIES. They are rarefied welfare recipients on the permanent dole at the expense of the taxpayer. They have no place in the 21st century. I might also add that we as Americans and especially conservative “republicans” with a small “r” should begin in earnest to export the ideology and principles of our founding fathers. For far too long we have imported the failed ideas of others. It’s time to fight back, the cultural and ideological war is just as important as the one we fight with bullets and bombs. We cannot afford to win on one front and yet lose on the other.
Why should we fault Australia for doing what we wanted to do back in 1776?
You may be right.
To amend the Australian constitution to make Australian a republic, the measure must:
1. Pass a majority of States (4 out of 6)
2. Pass a majority of the whole number of voters nationwide.
Here are the votes in 2000:
States, must win 4
New South Wales - 46.43%
Victoria - 49.84%
Queensland - 37.44%
Western Australia - 41.48%
South Australia - 43.57%
Tasmania - 40.37%
Territories, national vote only:
Australian Capital Territory - 63.27%
Northern Territory - 48.77%
National total - 45.13%
The republicans “might” be able to get a nationwide majority if they run up the numbers in Victoria, New South Wales, and the Australian Capital Territory. (Canberra, whose votes only count in the nationwide vote, not the state vote.)
The question is can the republicans get four states? In 1999 they didn’t top 50% in any of them.
I’m wondering in 2010 if they will do much better?
Is that true? Did Howard actually lose his parliment seat?
“He said yesterday that he would withdraw Australian troops from Iraq
Yes it will suck losing those 800 military personnel. /sarc. Good riddence.
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