Despite public support for an Australian Republic continuing on a downward trend, the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) has announced a new, watered down proposal that they claim is the only model “that could receive majority electoral support at a referendum”.
ARM Chair Peter FitzSimmons said it was not his preferred model, but simply the one with the “best chance of success”.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald:
Under the proposal, each state and territory parliament would nominate one individual, and the Federal Parliament would nominate three.
The shortlist of 11 Australians would then be put to voters at an election, and the successful head of state would serve a five-year term.
The model would see the selection process for nominees taken out of the hands of Australian citizens and handed over to an elite few. Instead of our time-honoured and stable system of constitutional monarchy, the ARM is proposing a system where the elites – like them – are still in control.
They say it would remove the risk of “unsuitable candidates” being put forward, rather than those who were “qualified for the job”.
The Australian Choice model is a desperate attempt at finding a model agreeable to an Australia that remains largely opposed to becoming a republic.
A 2021 study found that support for Australia becoming a republic had dropped to its lowest level in 42 years, with only a third of Australians saying they are in favour.
As the Herald reported: “The republican movement has stagnated in Australia since the failed referendum, and other polls – including a 2021 survey by Ipsos for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age – have found support for a republic of some kind as low as 34 per cent. Among 18 to 24-year-olds it was just 26 per cent.”
This latest attempt by Peter FitzSimons and his Australian Republican Movement is just another attempt at forcing a system of government on Australians they don’t want.