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Libertarian individuals in Australian republicanism

By Cameron Riley - posted Tuesday, 9 August 2005


The Lawsons

Another attempt to create a movement was by the Lawson family in 1887 to complement their newspaper, The Republican. The Australian Republican Union initially contained the same members as the contributors to the Louisa Lawson's paper. The union gained some momentum, before being replaced by George Black's Republican League. Black later went on to become an editor of the rabid Republican Bulletin.

The experience of the Lawsons and Black were similar throughout the country. Australian republicans maintained an individualistic streak, not collapsing their belief in the superiority of a republican form of government, and the precedence of individual and political rights into a popular political movement. For Australian republicans it has been a personal belief system.

This is not to argue that monarchists and conservatives have been benign in the suppression of republicanism. They have not, often going to tyrannous lengths to thwart, isolate and silence republicans. As a consequence republicanism in Australia has been one of individualism and the resistance to government tyranny. This can be seen in the actions of people, and groups such as the Ballarat Reform League, whose charter contained:

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That it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he is called upon to obey - that taxation without representation is tyranny.

That, being as the people have been hitherto, unrepresented in the Legislative Council of the Colony of Victoria, they have been tyrannised over, and it becomes their duty as well as interest to resist, and if necessary to remove the irresponsible power which so tyrannises over them.

This formal statement is not much different to what Vincent Lingiari faced from the Vesteys. When Lingiari led the Gurindji people off the Wave Hill station to Wattie Creek in 1966, he did so as a strike against oppression and tyranny from the Vesteys and the Northern Territory government.

Lingiari is under-celebrated in this country: he stamped his foot on the ground for his rights and liberties which led to the land rights movement. Vincent Lingiari is quite simply, Australia's greatest patriot.

Charles Harpur

No Australian republican represented the individualistic streak more than Charles Harpur. Like Vosper, he was unable to give himself to a political faction to further the cause. His early beliefs were that republican government was the natural evolution of social organisation from monarchism as long as humanity was pursuing perfection. He later became depressed by the imperfectability of humanity, in corruption, nepotism, nomineeism and other negative factions. But his dominant belief that republicanism was the natural social and moral progression of humanity was not shaken. Elizabeth Perkins writes:

Harpur regarded all other forms of government as unnatural, although explicable in terms of primitive social   organizations and stunted human moral development. In the nineteenth century, it was only the continuing influence   of courtly and aristocratic traditions, he believed, that prevented civilised people from embracing equality in the political and social obligations. Freed of these traditions, within a few generations, nations would abandon the   aristocracy of the privileged.

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Civilised people, Harpur told the readers of the People's Advocate in 1849, "... are republicans ... and mostly democrats also, before they can render a definite reason, it may, for the faith that is in them".

His last quote is a very apt description of the history of Australian republicanism. Most have seen republicanism as an individual doctrine, a philosophy that is pursued as an intrinsic part of our social, moral and political being. I too see republicanism in this way. One of the failings of the modern republican movement is in communicating this aspect. A republican form of government is not only superior to a constitutional monarchy but is a more accurate reflection of the people's inherent social, moral and political nature - it will mirror the values that we carry inside us.

We are all republicans

Harpur's and Vosper's view of republicanism shows why monarchists see it as a such dangerous philosophy to their belief system. It cannot be eradicated while it is an internal expression that stretches to all aspects of our individual interactions in the social, cultural and political sphere.

This also explains why republicans have not been able to form into a popular political movement. For Australian republicans, it is a fait accompli - the inevitable republic - utterly rational. This describes why the Australian Republican Movement during the 1990s just said "republic" to the Australian people and expected it to be accepted. Ironically it nearly was, Australians are republicans inside, but they are pragmatic ones, and know when conservative professional politicians are pulling the wool over their eyes.

The next step for Australian republicans is to take it beyond Harpur and communicate a wider republican philosophy and doctrine - one that reflects the republican leanings of the Australian people, and their desire to transcend themselves. From such a point, the difficult process of Constitutional change to one of Australian republicanism can begin - and be ratified via referendum.

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Article edited by Patrick O'Neill.
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About the Author

Cameron Riley is founder of South Sea Republic. He authored the book, The K-fivical Cam, and has co-authored South Sea Republic Volume One as well as the recently released book, Patterns of Liberty.

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