Social and market researcher Rebecca Huntley says that Australian voters are way ahead of their politicians when it comes to social change. She states that there is little evidence that the policy agenda of major parties has been shaped by opinion polls. She reveals a long list of topics that attract 60 percent or higher support across “all the available surveys, a basic agreement crossing party lines, stretching from soft Liberal and Labor to Green and independent voters – and even (on some issues such as euthanasia and donation reform) to One Nation voters.” One thing she says that we would have already started on is the Republic. Her Quarterly Essay, “Australia Fair, Listening to the Nation” is published this month. [“Fairer, Greener, Smarter: ordinary voters are way ahead of the political class” by Rebecca Huntley, The Guardian online 18 March 2019] – click on link below.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
