Wasn’t that “The Republic and Us”?

ABC TV broadcasts as two-part documentary in the prime Sunday evening timeslot: “The Crown and Us” but really it should have been “The Republic and Us with seductive shots of the Royals since 1954”. This doco attempted to get to grips with ups and downs in Australian republicanism post WWII, while pretending not to, but was more of a talk fest without much of a central or cohesive theme other than we didn’t like the royals other than Diana much in the 1990s along with everyone else and that sentiment found its way into our Republic referendum (WfaAR disputes this thesis) but since then we do aided by moreish shots of new generation of royal clotheshorses and their consorts with plenty of the bejewelled young queen for dessert. It wasn’t quite clear where it ended up with the republicans campaigners (all male as usual, not good enough ABC) still hopeful especially with Charles and Camilla in prospect. ARM CEO, Michael Cooney, even went big salivating over the actuarial figures for 92 year old British women; others were not so sure. The most interesting contributions were from women among them: historians Julia Baird and Cindy McCreery; Indigenous activist Megan Davis commenting on the need for Indigenous Recognition first and the non-ceding of sovereignty; social commentators Nikki Gemmell on the glamour of royalty, Rebecca Huntley and Dee Madigan with Rachel Bailes for the (young) monarchists although her Kate-lookalike hair was more convincing that the rest of what she had to say.