9 June

Ahead of the Queen’s birthday holiday, Anne Witheford issued a press release as Convenor of the newly reconstituted Australian Republican Movement in the ACT. She said that community support for the republic remained very strong. Ms Witheford referred to a University of Queensland study, funded by the Australian Research Council, which revealed that half the people who voted NO had, in fact, wanted a republic. She added that as the only state or territory to vote YES at the referendum, the ACT had proved itself a model for the new national republican umbrella organisation in the area of public consultation because it had achieved a broad coalition of republican groups – supporting a variety of models for election of the head of state – which worked successfully together in the lead-up to the vote. It had also coordinated and supported a dozen regional forums, some across state borders.