As the country began to slowdown and shutdown with strict pandemic prevention measures in place nationally, it is clear that public health and immediate economic issues would be the focus for at least the next 6 months. Non-survival topics like Indigenous Recognition and the Republic dropped instantly from public discourse and the media (see also News Item of 6 June 2020). The only vague reminder about the Republic was the publication of Malcolm Turnbull’s “A Bigger Picture” in mid April but that aspect of the book gained no attention. The time of major threat from the pandemic was barren territory for constitutional matters as if they didn’t exist or belonged to a long-forgotten past.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
