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Why the role of our Head of State is important

By Lisa Singh - posted Tuesday, 14 February 2012


As the only Western country in the Asian region, we have an extraordinary opportunity to be involved in the region which will shape our world for the next hundred years. We must invest the time necessary to be a nation that lives, works and plays as much abroad as we do at home. Only 20 percent of Australians currently working in China, for example, can speak the language. There is a mentality that when we punch out at the end of our time in China, we come safely home to the West. But we can no longer afford to think of ourselves as simply visitors to this region. We are part of it.

Learning a second language is crucial to our engagement, not just to enable people to communicate, but to provide the ability to far better understand differences in culture; to understand not just what is said, but why. We can no longer fall back on the safety of the tongue of mother Britain.

The strength of the Tiger economies of South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan speak for themselves. The Association of South-East Asian Nations is now one third larger than Australia in market exchange rate terms. China and India's amazing economic growth has tripled their share of the global economy in the last twenty years. In the next twenty years, their share of the global economy will grow from a fifth to a third. We can no longer rely on the bounty of the Empire.

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Why an Australian Head of State? Because Australia is no longer in the antipodes. It is from this region that the agenda for the future will be set, and it is from this country that we must shape the attitudes and perception of our neighbours – in control of our own agenda and ready be involved in the region's affairs.

We need to look to the future in reference to who we are: a multicultural society comprised of new arrivals from all over the world; an economy with the advantage of adjacency; and a polity with robust, distinctly Australia institutions and attitudes. It is our own leadership on which we ought to be relying.

We are fortunate in this country to have that kind of leadership on this issue. Unlike other conservative nations of the Commonwealth, like Canada, the forces that would actively resist a republic do not have the authority of Government. We have a Prime Minister who believes in Australian republicanism. We have the energy and enthusiasm of young people and community activists for whom republicanism is the next logical step.

Yet despite our support, despite the opportunities before us, the republican movement too often hesitates. Perhaps chastened by the referendum in 1999 which was set up to fail, we equivocate, deferring to the macabre idea that we should wait until Queen Elizabeth passes on, even when the influence of the Royal Family wanes and the power of the United Kingdom is fundamentally challenged by our Asian neighbours.

Let us ensure the idea of an Australian republic with an Australian Head of State occupies a central place in our national political debate once again. Let us take the idea of our own Australia to our workplaces, our schools, our kitchen tables and our leaders. Let us rebuild the republican movement, mark out our own path in this region and build the momentum that can shape our future.

Just as Sir Henry Parkes had to fight the 'no' campaign against federation, we must rise to fight the 'no' campaign against an Australian republic with vigour, fortitude and belief in the nation we want to define for the future. A nation with our own Head of State that is truly Australian.

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This is an edited version of a speech given by Senator Lisa Singh on February 4 at the Australian Republican Movement Victorian Conference.



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About the Author

Senator Lisa Singh is Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Water and prior to this was Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General. She was also a Minister in the Tasmanian Labor Government.

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