Building on the success of the same sex marriage voluntary vote with its nearly 80 percent participation rate, Katharine Murphy says that the people saved the day. Two paragraphs of her Guardian analysis stand out: “I was struck by the fact that politics can still change a country, and the way to change a country is by belief, conviction and persistence. Change happens when people show up, however tough it gets, and show up for as long as it takes to get the job done.
Contemporary conventional wisdom says big reform can’t happen anymore because it creates winners and losers, and losers resist losing; it can’t happen because the whole system is too polarised and hyper-partisan and politics has lost the art of coming together in the national interest; and it can’t happen because the media cycle doesn’t create the underlying steadiness required to have a national conversation and create a synthesis.”
This is very encouraging for republicans whatever their opinions on how to select the Head of State. What she says is an equally important aspect of any votes – the people’s voice – on the Republic. Read her article by clicking link below [“The day people stepped in to save politics from its pointless squabbling” by Katharine Murphy, The Guardian online, 9 December 2017].
