An Australian Republic: this year, next year, sometime, never?

AUSTRALIA, LIKE CANADA, IS A CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCHY, WITH a federation "under the Crown." Unlike Canada, however, Australia has long been home to a republican movement. Three years after a referendum in which a republican proposal was defeated, the movement remains alive, although it has no obvious path toward attaining its goal.

Republicans were known to have arrived in Australia with the British "First Fleet" in 1788, and republican organizations and publications appeared throughout the 19th century, most actively in the 1880s. (1) Reflective of Australia's large Irish population, Australian republicans initially sought full independence from Britain and, as independence was gradually won, removal of references to the Queen from the Constitution. Among other things, the Australian Constitution provides for a governor-general to act as "Her Majesty's representative" in Australia. Although the Constitution itself does not refer to a "head of state," it is accepted by most that the governor-general is the "functional" head of state, while the Queen is the "constitutional" head.

While the Australian republican movement itself has never been large, it has intermittently had an impact on Australian constitutional debates throughout its history. Ten years ago, the republican goal achieved unprecedented prominence when it gained federal government support for the first time. The Labor Prime Minister of the time, Paul Keating, promoted an Australian republic when he came to office in 1992. One year lat...

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