26 October

Polls show support for the YES case plunging with people switching from YES to undecided. Support for the preamble has also fallen but is still likely to be passed. Only 27 percent of women were leaning to YES for the republic compared with 39 percent of men (sample 2065, city and country).
Margo Kingston writing in The Sydney Morning Herald reports Professor Marian Sawer’s comments on the lack of support among women for the republic. Professor Sawer’s research has shown that the idea of replacing the Queen with an Australian head of state has always had less appeal because women are “less attracted than men to themes of separation, independence and self-reliance and more attracted to themes of connection and security. Apron strings and the need to cut them have been very much part of the discourse of masculine independence.” Earlier in the year, Professor Sawer’s view was that republicans should meld the masculine pitch with reconciliation and an inclusive preamble because women were attracted to referendums that delivered more equity but she noted that ARM had taken no notice. She says “the only way to swing women so late in the debate is to “stress the safety of the model”.
Senator Marise Payne of NSW has a different opinion saying that women were too busy working and running households to have sufficient grasp of the facts and that they don’t have time to go looking for them. She is critical of the lack of basic facts provided by the YES campaign, a gap which the monarchists are filling with wrong information. She thinks many voters now believe that the republic will result in a change to the national flag and all the coins being melted down, neither of which are true.