The legislation stalls in the Senate when the Democrats gain a victory for their revised wording for the republic question, asking simply if Australia should become a republic, no mention of the Queen and no mention of the selection model….
Mateship out of the Preamble! The Prime Minister announces the new, heavily amended wording for the preamble. Mateship is gone replaced by more expansive words about the national spirit in the last phrase and a reference to the sacrifices made…
Women for an Australian Republic participates in the launch of the ACT YES Coalition joining Young Australians for A Republic, ACT ARM, A Just Republic, individuals from the ACT community and members of all of the major local political parties. ACT women residents who spoke movingly…
The House of Representatives passes new wording for the question about the referendum on the republic: “An Act to alter the Constitution to establish the Commonwealth of Australia as a republic with the Queen and Governor-General being replaced by a…
Senator Meg Lees, leader of the Australian Democrats, now holding the balance of power in the Senate, meets twice with the Prime Minister in an effort to reach agreement on the question to be put about the preamble.
Michelle Grattan reports in the Sydney Morning Herald that Federal Cabinet is under pressure over the referendum question on the republic after a poll conducted for the Herald showed that the referendum would be carried on the proposition that the Queen and…
Senator Amanda Vanstone, Minister for Justice and Customs issues a press release calling for a calm and rational approach to the debate in the lead-up to the referendum. “There is not much time before the referendum and regardless of the outcome of…
New Democrat Senator, Aden Ridgeway, only the second indigenous Australian to be a member of the Federal Parliament has told the Prime Minister that he objects to the word “mateship” in the draft preamble to the Constitution because “it is…
Finally some commonsense in the debate – Anne Henderson, Deputy Director of the Sydney Institute, writing in The Australian says that this referendum will not be decided by which politicians are supporting the YES and NO cases but that being quite different…
The Prime Minister announced that the Queen and Prince Phillip will be in the country for a royal tour in March 2000. It will the Queen’s 13th visit to Australia and her first since 1992. WfaAR comment – and, hopefully,…
