AN ADDRESS TO A GATHERING OF

MONARCHIST ORGANISATIONS IN CANADA

I come to you both as the head of the Australian Monarchist League - a sister organisation in The Crown we both share - and also representing the VOTE NO Alliance, which comprises many organizations and several political parties who together exceed a million members all united under our sponsorship to defeat the Republic.

We are engaged in a desperate fight to save, not only the Crown, not only the Monarchy but more especially the democracy of the Australian People.

You may well say that these are heady words, but nevertheless they are true for there is a move in our country to tear down the very fabric of our democracy by removing our Crown and replacing it with a political infrastructure totally dependent on the whim of the Prime Minister.

Unlike as in Canada, Australians are not emotionally attached to our Monarchy. In the ordinary course of events we do not say "God Save The Queen" nor do we toast Her very often. Those who value our monarchical heritage look more on The Queen as the Guardian of our Constitution, rather than as a regal personage.

Doubtless it is this attitude together with increasingly infrequent visits by members of the Royal Family to Australia that has led to an apologetic sense of apathy thus opening the door for Republicans to surge ahead with their emotional argument "We want an Australian Head of State".

We are now in a situation where even organisations which are privileged to bear the name "Royal" or which have as their Patron The Queen or a member of the Royal Family, languish in their importance whilst successive Governments have removed the symbols of our Monarchy. They have not uttered a word when Governments amend Oaths of Allegiance replacing "The Queen" with "Australia".

The Australian Monarchist League is the only organisation that has been out there fighting to retain some sanity in what seems to be a World gone mad.

I am afraid that Australians do not really appreciate our safe and secure system of Government by Constitutional Monarchy. Our freedom came to us far to easily for us to have much respect for it.

However Australians do not deserve the republican system that is proposed for us for it will remove all those checks and balances which protect the People from the excesses of Government and place total Constitutional power in the hands of the Prime Minister.

We do not intend to allow Australians to sit idly by whilst our politicians enrich their power at the expense of the liberty of the People.

Already our Governments have entered into several thousand Treaties manipulating the Constitution to over- ride the autonomy of our otherwise sovereign States and allow United Nations Committees to sit in judgment over Australian law. This subversion of our Constitution constitutes a far greater threat to Australia's sovereignty than the fact that we share our Sovereign with sixteen other Realms.

Some years ago we established the Foundation for Constitutional Research and Studies, not to thrust the Monarchy down people's throats, but solely to encourage High School students to learn more about their Constitution.

In an environment where only 18% of the population know something about our Constitutional arrangements, we have lobbied the Government to embark upon an education programme.

The Government have established such a programme but have appointed as its head one of the leaders of the Republican Movement.

Today our population in excess of 18 million is made up of people born in 240 separate countries, speaking 70 different languages.

Rather than ensuring integration into our Australian Community, our Government, in an endeavour to become multi-cultural, has accepted the arguments of leaders of many of these communities who say that the Monarchy and our British heritage is foreign to them and therefore Australia must reject them and become a Republic.

However the main push towards a Republic within Australia does not emanate from the People but from a wealthy elite, from big business and from politicians from all political spectrums.

In the recent Federal Election we have faced an unheard of situation where Liberal and Labor and the media joined together to successfully ensure that the subject of a Republic would not become an election issue.

Cabinet ministers, immediately after swearing fealty to The Queen of Australia, have then proceeded to denigrate her - calling her "that foreign Woman".

We face a situation where the media will publish anything supportive of a republic, some factual most totally fabricated and misleading.

You may well ask how did this all come about.

The current fervent debate on this issue has gone on for some eight years ever since Paul Keating had the matter of Australia becoming a Republic raised at the Annual Conference of the Australian Labor Party held in Hobart in 1991 which voted to encompass a Republic as Party Policy.

The Keating Government then established a Commission headed by the leader of the Republican Movement Malcolm Turnbull and comprised of republicans and persons sympathetic to their cause.

Dare I - in rather a biased fashion quote from the words of Oscar Wilde in A Woman of No Importance "the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable". Not surprisingly, the Commission recommended that Australia become a Republic

At the 1996 Federal election, John Howard in an effort to appease Republicans voters promised in an interview that he would hold a Constitutional Convention followed either by an Plebiscite and then a Referendum or by a Referendum alone.

Republicans at the Convention became totally divided over the issue on whether a President should be elected or appointed and although receiving the most votes the model proposed by the Australian Republican Movement failed to obtain a conclusive majority.

However the Prime Minister accepted this as a consensus and promised that a Referendum would be held in 1999.

In an attempt to emulate Thomas Woodrow Wilson who, in a message to Congress in 1915 stated "We have stood apart, studiously neutral", he has stated that he will remain above the debate.

The older generation in Australia have been horrified to see how many Liberal parliamentarians have come out in support of a republic.

They cannot understand why so many politicians, businessmen and leaders of the Community are so intent on replacing a system that has worked so well for a hundred years with a Republic.

I have always felt that the problem lies with generational changes in attitudes which are occurring far faster than ever before. The current move of change for change sake began in the sixties when short back and sides were replaced by floppy mops, when girls - in Australia at least - began wearing tight jeans and where elderly ladies were wont to say they could not tell the differences of gender from the back and sometimes even from the front.

The sixties generation is now the establishment of today, itself gasping at nipple piercing, multi coloured hair and the like.

The western world is actually experiencing the phenomena of an establishment that is actually anti-establishment. People in power pining for their youthful days of street demonstrations and the intrinsic thrill achieved in shocking their own older generation.

Maturity and an acceptance of traditional values usually go hand in hand, but not with the sixties generation. The Fabian like urge to tear down the establishment and to rebuild a utopian society is still very evident.

The whole episode would be quite comical if it were not so dangerous, for in Australia we are at a stage where radical constitutional change is being pushed through - regardless of the consequences - purely for the sake of change.

Those who are seeking to retain our existing constitutional arrangements are publicly accused of being Anglophiles and even traitors.

Members of the Monarchist League are portrayed as Colonel Blimps. When the media televise any of our meetings they purposely search out the oldest and grayest and most wrinkled of those present and focus their cameras on these unfortunate people.

Nothing can be further from the truth. The League and its supporters are simply ordinary Australians seeking to retain a sense of sanity in a debate that more and more seems to be grounded on age old hatreds of all things British.

However, although Britain may still have viewed Australia as a quasi Colony following Australian independence with the Federation in 1901, it was the Australian Government, not the British which decided to join the Allies in the First World War.

Whilst some influence was exercised through the appointment by the King of the Governor General, this all changed as it did in the other Dominions following the passage in 1931 of the Statute of Westminster.

In 1986 the Australia Acts were passed by the Federal Government and by each of the six States as well as by the British Parliament. The Australia Acts had the effect of extending the provisions of the Statute of Westminster embedding the rights of the States and entrenching the role of The Queen as "Queen of Australia".

The fact is that Australia does enjoy a total independence and sovereignty over its affairs and has done for the major part of this century. Our political, legal, cultural and physical identity is uniquely and quintessentially Australian.

We are fortunate that Britain had indeed learnt from its mistakes with the American Colonies and no civil wars needed to be fought for Australian independence.

By the time Australia had passed the stage of being merely a penal colony the British Government had adopted the principles of Home Rule and had long accepted the need for democratic self government by its colonialists.

It was in 1849 that a Privy Council Committee recommended that more extensive powers of self Government be given to the Australian Colonies and some fifty years later and only one hundred years on from the raising of the British Flag on Australian soil, that people throughout the Australian continent were meeting together to formulate a Constitution for the Federation of what had developed into the six British Colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia.

The document of Federation became law in Australia on the 1st of January 1901 following successive years of debate and a series of referendums.

Whilst the final model was based on the Westminster system it incorporated the ideal of a Senate from the USA, the principles of Federation from Canada and the concept of referendums from Switzerland.

However the very essence of the Constitution was contained in The Crown of the United Kingdom which from 1953 also became the individual and separate Crown of Australia.

Many Australians look to the great Republic down South as a model, and although the two systems of democracy differ they are both based on the same principle of checks and balances for politicians wherever they are will always attempt to twist the Constitution towards their own ends. After all, was it not Abraham Lincoln who said "As President, I have no eyes but constitutional eyes; I cannot see you"

(One wonders how different Bill Clinton's life would be now if he had adopted the same pose when meeting with Monica Lewinsky and other female assistants).

Unlike as in America, the Australian Constitution is not accompanied by a Bill of Rights and in itself makes no mention of the rights and the liberties of the People it protects nor does it stipulate the creation of political office.

It need do none of these things because under The Crown we have inherited the traditions, the Conventions, the Laws and indeed all of the intrinsic rights and liberties which were won over centuries of conflict and of cautious change and development and which are now contained within the practice of the Westminster System.

The essential differences between our current constitution and the proposed Republican Model (which obtained a consensus - but not a majority vote - at the Constitutional Convention for which less than 50% of the People actually participated in the ballot for delegates) is that under our current system the role that The Crown plays in the appointment and removal processes ensures that the Governor-General's allegiance is to the People and not to the Government.

However under the proposed model, The Crown will be removed and its powers assumed by a President who will hold office at the pleasure of the Prime Minister. The President will be appointed for a five year term by a two thirds majority of the members of Parliament at a joint sitting on the nomination of the Prime Minister which must be seconded by the Leader of the Opposition.

The question of dismissal is the one which is breaking the Republican ranks apart for under the proposed Republican model a Prime Minister may himself "at will" dismiss a President subject to obtaining approval by a majority of the House of Representatives within thirty days,

A foregone conclusion except in the case of a minority government.

Realising that there are some very serious arguments against the Model its republican proponents are now rather absurdly seeking a mandate from the People on the basis that any shortcomings and flaws could be sorted out after it has become law! In other words "Trust us".

Under our referendum process, members of Parliament who vote against a Bill to hold a Referendum then meet to write a "NO" case whilst those who voted for will write the "YES" case.

However our "Monarchist" Prime Minister intends to exercise the whip requiring all Coalition parliamentarians to vote for the Bill thus meaning that under the terms of the Referendum Machinery Provisions Act no "NO" case can be prepared.

We have pointed out that by removing the criteria by which Members of Parliament normally declare themselves by voting for or against the Bill, how can we judge that those who prepare the "NO" case are truly against a Republic.

We have pointed out that by voting for the Bill, Members are in fact voting towards a Republic.

We have pointed out that the media will take an absolute vote on a Referendum to be an absolute vote by Parliament on a Republic.

Our pleas are falling on deaf ears.

History will indeed poorly judge this period.

With the immense forces that are arrayed against us, you may well ask what can we do?

With a situation which is so very depressing, you may wonder why do we bother?

We bother because we value our system of Government. We bother because we love our country. We bother because if we become a Republic - and this is particularly so under the proposed model - WE WILL LOSE OUR DEMOCRACY. WE WILL FORFEIT OUR LIBERTY.

I can assure you that the Australian Monarchist League will never give up. We will exhaust ourselves until our last breath. We have faced considerable odds before - admittedly none so intimidating as now - but with perseverance and dedication, we will win. We will defeat this threat against our freedom and continue to live under the Australian Crown. The same Crown that is keeping Canada Free. The Crown of Democracy.

People power has always been the pathway to success for the Australian Monarchist League.

Over the years we have mobilised people throughout Australia to lobby parliamentarians in protest of the eradication of our monarchical symbols and traditions.

For some years we have recognised the vital importance of manning all 7,415 polling booths throughout Australia for in Australia we have compulsory voting where everyone who is on the Electoral Roll must vote or else face a fine. Unlike as in Canada we have people at polling booths handing out cards advising electors How to Vote your way.

In preparation for this critical task the League has established Alliances in most States amongst Loyalist and Service organisations. With the capacity to unite well over a million people under the banner of VOTE NO the Alliance is now the most powerful body ever created to fight the Republic.

VOTE NO is now an incorporated Association. We are currently establishing offices and computerised facilities for we will need to mobilise some 100,000 people to man all polling booths.

A horrendous task, especially as the League is a totally voluntary organization. No grand offices or top executive salaries for us. No glossy publications. All our printing and publishing is done in-house. Every cent that can be saved is saved. But it is still not enough.

Whilst we have been amazingly successful in our work it has all been achieved at tremendous cost.

We are committed to spending a hundred and fifty thousand dollars over the next month alone to sustain our task of reaching out to communities and organisations.

In networking the length and breadth of Australia. In ensuring that as each Australian goes to vote on that historic day in November each and every one will go into the polling booth with a HOW TO VOTE "NO" CARD in his or her hand. That is our task. That is our duty.

I have not come to you to ask for money, although we are desperately in need of funding. No, I have come to ask for your help in reaching out to Australian expatriate communities. There are supposed to be some 8,000 Australians living in Toronto alone but only 347 voted in the recent Federal Election. However Australians overseas have a right to vote if they are eligible to be on the enrollment lists and we need your help in contacting as many of these expatriates as possible and encouraging them not only to vote but to VOTE NO,

For our cause is the continuing Liberty of our great Australian nation. Liberty for us. Liberty for our children. Liberty for our children's children.

So that they may continue to live under one of the finest constitutions yet devised. Liberty and Democracy. That is our watch cry.

Toronto

19th February 1999