On Margaret Throsby’s Midday Interview (ABC Classic FM Mon-Fri at 12 noon), the guest was former Labor PM Bob Hawke. Margaret started by asking him about the Abbott knighthoods introduced last year. Hawke replied that the measure of their worth was that even John Howard thought they were a bad idea. Then he said that he had suggested to the previous Labor Government that they hold a vote for the Republic to come into effect as soon as the Queen died but they had squibbed it. At least it is a new idea (one worth pursuing even if the grounds for it are shaky and deferential: no one wants to offend the Queen, that’s sexist) and a shift for Hawke who had previously advocated for no change until the Queen dies but now proposes some action to go with it, that is to be ready to put it in place before Charles formally takes the throne. It also means doing all the preparatory work beforehand.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
