There is overwhelming support for a republic within the Australian community and it is now time to kick start the debate on how we can achieve this -Natasha Stott Despoja .
In 1999 the Australian public voted on a referendum to finally become a republic and detach us from the English empire. As is well known across Australia, that referendum was never passed, not because Australians refuse the idea of a republic, but as Natasha Stott Despoja put it, Australians were asked, if they wanted to have a president elected by parliament-and 55 per cent voted no. Australia still remains a part of the English empire and, more importantly, is still a country blindly following the world powers.
Australia has always been the lapdog to whatever country happens to be the leading world power at the time. Australians were born and bred into servitude, first to mother England as cannon fodder in World War 1 and then as a testing ground for nuclear weapons. When we could take no more of our control by England we thought to break free, yet quickly went back to our lapdog service, this time for the United States of America. We blindly followed into unpopular wars merely because the US told us to, first Vietnam and now Iraq, supposedly because of weapons of mass destruction, which have yet to be discovered, and then because the Iraqi people needed liberation.
Even when Australia tried to escape the overbearing presence of its perpetual masters it was forced back into retention. When Edward Gough Whitlam initiated dramatic reform of Australia's social structure he began to differentiate our culture from that of England's and began our road to independence. The threat this posed to England's control over Australia was warrant enough for Sir John Kerr, then Governor-General, to sack the Whitlam government.
Of course such an incident now would cause public outrage. The position of Governor-General has no real power today, as evinced by the resignation of The Right Reverend Dr Peter Hollingworth, which was essentially the decision of the Australian people and their government.
