The republican referendum of 1999 failed because majority of the people voted in the negative and said NO. During the bicentenary celebrations of Australia in 1988, the Queen visited Canberra in May of that year to open the new Parliament House. While addressing the people , the Queen drew on the royal connection, saying that her father, George VI, had opened the original Canberra Parliament House in 1927 and her grandfather George V had opened the inaugural the Melbourne Parliament House in 1901. (Qvortrup, 2001, p. 1)
The nature of the Sydney celebrations of 1988 drew the wrath from a lot of Australians wherein they wanted European Australians to let go of England and Australia to be an independent republic (Qvortrup, 2001, p. 1). The Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating played a very important role in this regard, wherein he proposed that the Australian flag should be modified. Majority of the people in Australia felt that Australia and the United Kingdom were separate nations and that Australia should sever all bonds with the United Kingdom and be truly independent and that the Queen belonged to the United Kingdom in every facet. Keating established the Republic Advisory Committee on the 28th of April 1993 which was a concrete step in making Australia an independent republic. The committee proposed that the only way in making Australia a Republic nation was to remove the Queen and introduce an Australian as the head of state.
There was a lot of debate over which republican model should be instituted, until ARM’s minimalist model was chosen as the winner and put as a referendum in Australia. (Qvortrup, 2001, p. 5) However, the republican campaign in Australia failed and the republic was said to be an elitist initiative.
The lesson learnt was republicans should want more change from the heart. They should truly want Australia to be an independent nation, rather than voting for their personal preferences. The people who propagated and promoted the No vote, used the policy of divide and rule to their own advantage. Everybody was convinced that the person at fault was John Howard and there was a lot of hostility and wrath directed at him.
Even after Malcolm Turnbull became the prime minister of Australia, he did not revive the republican issue. For the republican model to succeed, people in Australia must put principles above politics in Australia. (Qvortrup, 2001, p. 10)
Reference list:
Qvortrup, M. H. (2001). How to lose a referendum: The Danish plebiscite on the euro. The Political Quarterly, 72(2), 190-196.
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