3 December

The Australian features two women who attended the Corowa Conference. Denva Poyntz, 16 from Moama near Echuca (Vic) told the conference that no one was asking the next generation what they want. She said that no one should assume that young people were not interested. She favoured the Craven proposal because it was asking what people wanted, not telling them what to do. Also pictured was Judith Brooks, a teacher from Barwon Heads near Geelong. She told the conference “People don’t go to the supermarket and say “By God, I want a republic. But people do want an Australian head of state and they want leadership.” Judith was also reported as saying that she was a former member of ARM who had left because she was disgusted with the headkicking of Malcolm Turnbull and the way that ARM thought they owned the republic. She thinks that ARM has changed but questions how much. “The way forward for the republic will be when the people stop being afraid of the politicians, and the politicians stop being afraid of the people, when the issue becomes one of unifying the nation and not dividing the nation, and when it becomes something we all move together on in a bipartisan manner. There has to be an exchange of trust.” (Quoted from an article by Mike Steketee)