Can we run this through Babelfish so the political terms are in proper American? Republican seems to have a different connotation than we can adapt to even with Republicans acting like spend-crazy Democrats.
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.
Australia is a Constitutional Monarchy. Our Head of State is a King or Queen, and their Heir automatically succeeds to being our Head of State on the death of the King or Queen.
Some people wish to change Australia into a Republic - which would mean our Head of State was a President, elected by some process (there's a lot of different potential models).
And it support for this idea that makes somebody a republican in Australia.
While some conservatives are republicans, most monarchists are conservatives. So to an extent, conservatism and monarchism are connected in Australia, and republicanism is more associated with the left. But that's a generalisation.