Republicans back Latham's plan

(By Andrew Fraser - Canberra Times April 21 2004)

The Australian Republican Movement has embraced Mark Latham's accelerated timetable for an Australian republic and his two-plebiscite approach to ensuring the country has a home-grown head of state.

The Opposition Leader unveiled his republic plan yesterday to the Global Foundation, seeking to: Hold an initial plebiscite, asking the threshold question: do we want to become a republic?

Put forward a second plebiscite, which would ask what was the most appropriate model.

Conduct a referendum with the election scheduled for 2007, putting the people's choice at the second plebiscite up for decision.

Mr Latham said this process would give power to the people.

"No constitutional conventions. No control by the politicians. No veto for the powerful ..." he said. "This type of republic will provide a powerful statement of Australian independence, in which the people themselves are sovereign."

The chair of the Australian Republic Movement, John Warhurst, welcomed Mr Latham's "bottom-up" approach.

"Broadly, we're supportive of the process and, as far as the timetable is concerned, we think it's both realistic and timely ... so long as it's associated with considerable public education, as it undoubtedly will be," he said.

Unlike Mr Latham, the ARM had argued for a fully elected constitutional convention, Professor Warhurst seeing its role as most critical between the proposed plebiscites. However, given Mr Latham's opposition to conventions, he suggested the detailed work of framing the referendum question be investigated by a parliamentary committee. He hoped for bipartisan support for a republic, noting that the republican Peter Costello could be leading the Coalition if Mr Latham won this year's election. The fact that Mr Latham supported direct election of a president and Mr Costello did not could be worked out in the debate between plebiscites.

Prime Minister John Howard described the Latham plan as a "waste of focus so soon after the last referendum", held in November 1999. (The ACT was the only jurisdiction to vote for a republic in that referendum.)

"If people want to revisit it they can but we won't be revisiting it in this coming election," Mr Howard said. "We're more focused on things that are of direct relevance to people's lives."

Malcolm Turnbull, the former head of the ARM who chaired the republican advisory committee established by former prime minister Paul Keating, wondered who would prepare the models to go to the people under Mr Latham's plan.

The Warhurst notion of a constitutional convention to look at the models and the questions to go to the people made sense to him.

The national convener of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy, David Flint, said Mr Howard was "spot on": the Latham plan came far too soon after the last referendum, its timetable was too short and it would be too costly.

Beyond that, he said Labor's front bench would not allow such a contentious issue to be put to the people at the same time as a federal election, and he criticised the Latham preference for direct election, saying this would cause "enormous problems" with the reserve powers of the Crown.

"An elected president is going to be another elected official on top of the prime minister," he said. "Without making very radical changes to the Constitution ... the country would become very difficult to govern, because the prime minister will be competing with the president."

He did not believe the republic would be an election issue this year, "but people may make judgments about Mr Latham for bringing this on without obviously much thought going into it".