Australia to vote on Republic

Started by tiaras, July 28, 2017, 12:37:16 PM

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tiaras

Labor will put Australian republic to vote in first term if it wins next election | Australia news | The Guardian

If this happens then it'll get the ball rolling on other commonwealth countries and eventually Britain will start wondering about keeping them around as well. About darn time.

Curryong

Well, I wouldn't get too excited about it. The next Federal election here for the House of Representatives is likely to be called near to November 2019. If Bill Shorten, the ALP leader wins the election he said he will call for a referendum at the end of his first term. That will make it near to the end of 2022.

Also, there are a number of hoops to be jumped when there is a referendum question. To be passed it has to be a Yes vote in a majority of States and Territories , and it has to have a majority of votes nationally. It didn't get anywhere near to the numbers for Yes last time and if a government is unpopular at the end of its first term the population is hardly likely to go rushing out to vote in favour of any of the proposals it puts up. As elsewhere the Australian population is divided at the moment. No government has won decisively for years, they just scrape it in.

Because of the above processes, only a handful of referendum questions have passed since Federation in 1901. Most have sunk without a trace.

tiaras

It may take decades but it'll happen slowly but surely.

Curryong

Quote from: tiaras on July 28, 2017, 06:59:30 PM
It may take decades but it'll happen slowly but surely.

Oh it's taken slightly longer than 'decades'. Some Australians have been publicly talking about a republic since the early 1890's! By the time we get one it will most probably be Charles's reign and I will no longer care!