Marcia Langton and Bob Carr argue for the affirmative that “The Queen will be the last Australian monarch” in a debate hosted by the St James Ethics Centre. Langton posed two commonsense questions that go to the heart of the sometimes murky, over-emotional and over-complicated debate: “Do you want your next head of state to be Prince Charles or an Aboriginal elder? How can Australians say they are proud to be Australian and also want a foreign head of state?” Against were The Times journalist David Aaronovitch and NO Case (republic and recognition of local government) chair, Julian Leeser. Langton’s passion, puzzlement at opposition and her Australian-ness were striking. She was visibly affronted (rightly) by members of the audience arguing to retain the British monarchy: “Do they think we’re just a postcode of Britain? Why do they live here?”, she asked. About the young, articulate dissenters she commented,” if you’re a young Australian and a monarchist, you need to get out and have a look around.” The full debate of just over two hours is available on the website below. It was to be sincerely regretted that the discussion, a less than complete or satisfactory airing of the issues, resulted in the audience vote for the motion dropping 3.5 percent, the vote against increasing 11.5 percent while that of the undecideds dropped 8 percent over its course.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
