Robert Hughes, expatriate art critic and commentator has upset the monarchists with his opinion on the downing of the republic proposal as taking place in a moment of “folly, weakness and irresoluteness”. His views appear in an official souvenir program put out by Sports Illustrated for the Olympics. The Executive Director of ACM, Mrs Kerry Jones, labelled the program “an absolute disgrace” and said that it should be pulped. “We resoundingly defeated the republic last year in a compulsory referendum,” she said. “To try to bring the republic issue up at this stage is an insult to the Australian people.” Reported by Andrew Stevenson in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
