It was on for young and old on Australia Day. Suddenly everyone was talking Republic but we’ll see how long this lasts. Was this the only diversion left? At least, it is better than last years Australia Day clanger of knighting Prince Philip that went down like a lead balloon. One unexpected shot in the arm was the choice of former Chief of Army, General David Morrison, a gender diversity and equality campaigner, as Australian of the Year. Morrison said that he also intended to talk up the Republic. ARM had gotten all the Premiers, bar Colin Barnett of WA, and Chief Ministers to sign up to a Republic with nice messages from the Labor ones and only a moniker from the Liberal ones – good, but only as far as it goes. That’s the easy bit; moving on from there will be much harder. In among all of this, a campaign was launched today to put Fred Hollows on the five dollar note to replace Parliament House. Wrong, he – or preferably a she – should displace the Queen as we did for the Centenary of Federation Year in 2000. We liked Jo Thornely’s take on all of this. She thinks we should be a republic but it requires so much effort to get there. [“Citizens of Australia, can you really be bothered with this whole republic business?” by Jo Thornely, 25 January 2016 on news.com.au]
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
