New team in grassroots republic push

(Canberra Times April 1 2004, page 9)

An aspirational young Ross Mooney became a republican when he was gutted after his first vote was effectively thrown out in the Whitlam dismissal and 81-year-old Dorothy Collings vows she will live to see an Australian head of state.

These are just two of Canberra's passionate republicans and part of the Australian Republican Movement's honorary ambassadors, announced yesterday. Movement chairman, and ANU politics professor John Warhurst said the ambassadors were part of the organisation's new grassroots approach.

Most of the 50 people were not famous, but would be able to take the call for an Australian head of state into their communities. This was the movement's main lesson from the failed 1999 referendum.

Mr Mooney, of North Lyneham, said he came from a politically active family and had been thrilled when, as an 18-year-old, he had had the opportunity to help vote Gough Whitlam in as prime minister.

"I want a republic because when I was 18 years old I remember doing my first vote and some 18 months later my vote was basically thrown out of Parliament by the Governor-General of England," he said.