A former secretary to five Governors-General, Sir David Smith, condemned the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, for accusing monarchy supporters as being un-Australian, unpatriotic, even disloyal.
He said patriotism and pride in being Australian were not the sole preserve of only one side of politics.
Sir David accepted that if a majority wanted a republic, then change must happen _ that was the democratic ideal.
“”In a similar fashion, those who wish to retain the existing system are also entitled to press their case, without being ridiculed or abused for doing so, or having their loyalty to Australia called into question,” he said.
Sir David was speaking at a conference at Parliament House entitled Freedom and Independence for the Golden Lands of Australia.
“”Constitutional monarchy does not have to justify its continued existence, but rather it is up to those who wish to replace it to provide the reasons,” he said.
Sir David was speaking in the same session as merchant banker and lawyer Malcolm Turnbull, a director of the Australian Republican Movement.
They met like two tennis players on the professional circuit who get more and more familiar with each other’s game. Since the Australian Republican Movement began last year they have frequently been on the same stage, and today each one’s speech attempted to pre-empt the other.
Turnbull’s backhand smash that migrants don’t understand our system was met by Sir David’s half volley that most of them escaped repressive republics to be countered in question time later by Turnbull’s lob that the migrant-supplying Italy and Greece were monarchies anyway.
Turnbull’s forehand drive that the Queen cannot represent Australia overseas was flicked with Sir David’s contention that Governor’s-General have represented Australia 27 times on state visits. To which Turnbull lobbed back that it was not sufficient to have an Australian Governor-General because his face was not on the coinage, his picture was not in public places and he was not called upon to preside over important public ceremonies.
“”The Governor-General is kept in the shade, because he is a deputy, a substitute, a stand in for someone else,” he said.
Asia and the republican issue, the archaic words in the Constitution, symbolism and how a president would be chosen were all the subject of longish rallies.
There were no aces. It was a civilised debate and therefore no victor, though there was a splendid shot by Sir David at the British Press. “”British editors and journalists who for years have behaved most despicably towards their Sovereign and her family, and continue to do so, had the effrontery to lecture us, and our Prime Minister and his wife, on how to behave towards out Sovereign,” he said.
However, Sir David regretted that Mr Keating had then started attacking anything with a British connection and had tried to rewrite the history of World War II to bolster his case.
He said that the Hawke and Keating Governments had done nothing to take up suggestions by the 1988 Constitutional Commission (set up by the Hawke Government) to remove references to the United Kingdom in the Constitution’s preamble and covering clauses or to provide an Australian law of succession to the Throne.
Mr Turnbull said, “”There is only one fundamental issue in the republican debate: how long will Australia allow the highest office under its Constitution, that of the monarch, the head of state, to be occupied by the Kings and Queens of another country?”
The Queen’s first commitment was not to Australia, but to Britain.
Mr Turnbull rejected the idea that the Queen is Queen of Australia. “”She is not an Australian, and does not live in Australia,” he said.
Australians had to feel good about themselves. Without a foreign head of state Australians would not have to feel inferior and could act with greater civic pride with all the benefits that came from that.
The conference continues at 9am today at the A.D. Hope Building at ANU and on Friday at 9am at the Parliament House theatrette with historic film from the National Film and Sound Archive.