12 August

The move to replace the ARM with a democratically elected body has swung into high gear with calls to change its image. Liberal MP Christine Gallus (Hindmarsh SA), who was on the YES Committee last year said that Mr Malcolm Turnbull had to take some of the blame for the failure of the referendum. She suggested that, as chair, he had kept such a tight rein on the ARM that other people’s ideas were smothered. “Malcolm Turnbull and many of his colleagues are viewed as part of an elite, perpetuating the myth that the republic was for the rich and famous,” she said. “It is time for the republican movement to start afresh, shaking off the baggage of the past.” Democrats Senator Natasha Stott Despoja (also from SA) has been seen as a possible leader for the new group, likely to be called Republic Australia, but her office said that she had only nominated for a position on the national committee. ACT ARM Convenor, Anne Witheford said that the new body should be open to having any member of the national executive as its chair, rather than assuming that only a high profile person or a politician should do the job (reported in The Canberra Times).