Quentin Bryce must work to derail the republican movement

The simplistic slogan of the republicans that we must “move on”, forced the staging of a constitutional convention in 1998 and a referendum in 1999.

Unfortunately that $93 million waste of everybody’s time was not the end of it. The republicans still have a problem which they are desperately attempting to make us feel is also our problem. The following claims look reasonable - until one gives some thought to them:

By having a foreign head of state, this country is not standing on its own two feet.

We are certainly not standing on our own two feet - but it has nothing to do our head of state living in London and everything to do with our crawling to the USA.

Under the 1986 Australia Act, the Queen has only one constitutional power; she can reject the Prime Minister's recommendation for the position of Governor-General. As she would never reject that recommendation, the Governor-General is our head of state in all but name.

A non-executive or ceremonial president is what we would be getting if we become a republic. The constitution can only be tinkered with. Since 1901, all government and legal activity has been setting the constitution firmly in place: it can no more be changed at a fundamental level than can the framework in a completed house.

The average voter does not understand that all the fuss is about our obligation to have the Queen’s signature on a piece of paper once every five years.

We could have another 1975-type crisis.

There was no crisis. There was no blood in the streets. Life went on as normal. What we should be really worried about is the manipulation of the public mood by media moguls who set out to change an elected government.

The history is that when a Queensland senate position was left vacant by a deceased Labor senator the morally-confused Jo Bjelke-Petersen did not replace him with a Labor Party nominee. Instead the replacement was a poorly educated independent who swore revenge after Gough Whitlam made a slur against the Bible.

The opposition in the senate now had the numbers to block supply. But, public support was needed - and this was provided by the Packer and Murdoch press. They had, over a period of some months, been conditioning the collective consciousness of their readership to believe that the Whitlam government was not fit to manage a chook yard.

With supply blocked, government could not govern. John Kerr (using his reserve powers) then called for a general election - thus denying the government its right to choose the optimum date which would favour its re-election. A non-executive president would have done exactly the same thing at the time.

The privilege inherent in any aristocracy is at odds with Australian values.

Every system sets up people in privileged positions - with or without hereditary titles. For example; last year the top 20 executives in Macquarie Bank picked up $209 million between them.

A lot of people like the idea of having a royal connection. After all how else can it be explained that Tasmania views its greatest gift to the world as being the next Queen of Denmark? Having commemorative cups in the house with portraits of the monarch on them once gave a lot of ordinary people pleasure.

The euphoria of the Sydney Olympics was exceeded by the euphoria of the 1954 royal tour. I doubt that any nation has ever felt any better in the history of the world. You may think that we must have been a lot of hicks in the 1950s, but for the two months “our beautiful young Queen” was here, we felt that an angel was walking among us.

Psychologists know that almost every individual has a desire to put certain people up on pedestals, and that our sense of order and well-being is enhanced when we do this. The Queen has the potential to fill this role. The gradual removal of the Queen's portrait from public buildings has left us with a diminished sense of security which can be recognised by those who remember pre-1970 Australia.

Old Australians can also remember a wholesome Women's Weekly which would have been struggling without the lives of royalty to adoringly report on. Then the media which once nourished our fantasies, gradually set about to bring us down to Earth by digging for any bit of gossip it could get. But, it did not get completely out of the fantasy business - there was Diana.

King Charles lll will be unacceptable even as a nominal head of state for Australia.

If Charles was to be crowned tomorrow, he would be the oldest person to be crowned in English or Scottish history. That would be one more public relations hurdle to jump to add to those others which have already put in front of him.

If the Queen had abdicated after 30 years on the throne (in 1983) Charles would have been immune to media scrutiny from then on. But, by hanging on for as long as she was living, she has left him vulnerable. It is unlikely he has any chance of being accepted by the British people.

The media built Diana into a goddess after her marriage failure, while building a negative image of Charles.

If Charles has been shelved, then the British parliament must have its eyes on someone. That someone is a young man described by a women’s magazine as “drop-dead gorgeous”. While Harry’s behaviour is being scrutinised by the media, there seems to be a hands-off policy with William - as if in anticipation of something big coming up.

There would be few Australians sympathetic to the republican cause if it was not for what the tabloid press has done to the institution of monarchy by its ruthless focus on the failings of its very human components.

Our connection with Britain is of no value.

It is of value if history means anything.

“When I arrived in Sydney, I felt proud to be an Englishman. We have achieved more in decades here than what those who colonised South America have achieved in as many centuries.” (Charles Darwin in 1836.)

We inherited Britain’s systems of government and law and some sports which have become crucial to our culture. Above all, we inherited a language which allows us to enjoy in its original state much of the best literature ever written, the vast majority of the best songs ever composed and the world language for science and commerce for the 21st century.

By our volunteering to have the head of state of another country to be our own, we are an example to a world of intrigue that genuine fraternities are possible.

Quentin Bryce can seriously set the republicans’ program back

William Deane stepped out of his box and projected a public profile on issues which the public at large warmed to. Michael Jeffrey has not done this, and has slipped back to the situation where the Governor-General was as unknown at the end of his term as he was at the beginning.

We need a Governor-General with a high profile - which can be achieved by having a more productive relationship between the Governor-General and the people.

While publicly appearing to be sitting on the fence, Bryce has a responsibility to quietly secure the future of the status quo. She took on that responsibility when she accepted the vice-regal position.

Bryce can secure the future of the vice-regal position by greatly expanding on its connection to the public, which William Dean initiated. She can give us what we urgently need - someone at the top who we can respect and who is above our self-serving parliamentarians.

As the Governor-General Quentin Bryce needs to actively use her position to help people understand that nothing can be gained by becoming a republic, while something can be lost.