No Action on Republic out of 2020 Summit

The Government announces action on nine recommendations out of nearly 1000 ideas put forward at the 2020 Summit held in April 2008. The strongly supported move to a republic was not one of them. On this subject now under the heading “Constitutional Reform”, the Government only commented that it recognises the priority placed on “constitutional reform” by the community and, further, that “it is committed to ongoing reform of our Constitution where appropriate and will draw on the input of the Summit in thinking about future possible proposals for constitutional change.” This vague language indicates that the republic is a very, very long way down the Government’s agenda and that we are not likely to see action anytime soon. WfaAR has written to the Prime Minister to protest the Government’s short-sightedness and suggest action is required even to get us out of the mire resulting from the global financial crisis and to create a modern forward-looking and cohesive society.