A new political party for new times

The Republican Democrats say polls indicate that the Australian people are way ahead of last election’s crop of politicians on the republic question and the opportunity to become the Republic of Australia brings with it exciting opportunities for other great big positive changes including a modern new constitution founded on modern-day knowledge and law. This opens the door to ways to refine or improve our type of constitutional democracy, including incorporating aspects of the American democratic model which could greatly improve separation of powers. The party also supports the European idea of citizen-initiated referenda.

A secular population

Both major parties’ talk about sustainable population growth is more dog-whistle politics masking an underlying issue concerning many reasonable Australians who do not want our country to ever become conflicted by any religion - be that Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, or anything else. Australians are telling Republican Democrats emphatically that they want all intending immigrants to formally accept our system of law, the separation of church and state, and equality between women and men.

While Republican Democrats support these new ideas, getting them into our present Constitution would be a nightmarish, likely impossible task.

The opportunity for Australia to move to a republic offers the chance of an exciting new political era for our nation. I can think of no other country which has a similar opportunity to undertake such positive radical reshaping at this important time. Australians are telling us they are ready to move to a republic and are hungry to have a frank discussion about all opportunities to improve our systems of constitutional democracy. They say they want a new constitution which values and sets out honourable entitlements for First Australians, enshrines a secular spirit for our clever country, and establishes our shared vision for our future.

How Australia is governed is an issue and constitutional reform is inevitable. Republican Democrats say they are the only party talking about the Republic of Australia because they have a solution. Part of that solution, they say, means ensuring public policy is driven from the centre, not the fringe.