When Australia Became a Republic…..

It already is as in “not really”! New book by ARM Co-Chair, Esther Anatolitis, “When Australia became a Republic” looks at the evolution of Australia’s republic and its gradual infiltration into our legal system, practices, traditions and ceremonies and the historical record – the much maligned “creeping republicanism” that offends monarchists so much: “too much already”, they say but no one really notices as modern life proceeds apace. She then tackles how to get the Republic over the line in a federal constitutional referendum and bring about the crucial legal change required to formally make the difference. This is a society first approach to the problems of getting the job finished in an age of declining social cohesion, stark economic pressures at all levels of the community, increasing complexity of daily life, lack of patient presentation of the details along with the shouty echo chamber that is social media. Ultimately, she posits that we have to examine all these things and ways to overcome them because monarchy and democracy, in their essentials, are fundamentally incompatible. Her book was reviewed by republic regular, Dr Benny T Jones of CQ University in the December 2025 edition of the Australian Review of Books