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The Australian Republican Movement’s Michael Keating has seized on the Governor-General’s belief that the country will one day become a republic, claiming that “there is never a better time than now.”
And with worries about the global financial crisis, climate change and infrastructure dominating political debate, could there be a better opportunity to come together as a nation and pretend we give a shit about becoming a republic?
After all, there’s something about the “republic debate” that stirs Australian hearts almost as much as the related concepts “in the school assembly hall” and “Thursday lunchtime”.
Having delivered the ARM’s team line—“even the Queen’s own representative thinks we should be a republic”—Major General Keating explained that his second speaker would respond to the negative’s team line and that his third speaker would present some sort of conclusion.
Major General Keating was quoted by AAP as saying that a republic was “essential to Australia’s future.”
Republicanism rounds out a top-four list of essentials for Australia’s future that also includes: minimal tectonic plate shift, the continued global acceptance of a world order based on sovereign states, and the ongoing passage of time.
For those who have never heard of the ARM’s leader, a full background is available in the Seymour Centre’s new production of Keating! The Gilbert and Sullivan Musical.
The Governor-General braces herself before hearing the opinions of the children, who are our future.
