Interesting piece. A few points:

1. Who are "progressives"? I fervently look forward to the day when one of us is our Head of State, and I vote Liberal. Does this mean I am a "progressive"?

2. One might expect "progressives" to champion an Australian Head of State, but it will never happen until the conservative side of politics backs the concept. They may well do so, when the time is right. Many prominent conservatives support having an Australian Head of State, examples being Malcolm Turnbull, Andrew Robb, Joe Hockey, Chris Pyne, Simon Birmingham, Tim Fischer, Doug Anthony, Amanda Vanstone, to name just a few.

3. Speaking about "the republic" is very nebulous. What you mean by "the republic" may be very different to what I mean by it. Does one mean a republic like the USA? Or one like France? Or one like Ireland or Germany? or one like the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Most people in the mainstream who favour an Australian Head of State actually mean that they want to see a democratically chosen Australian at the apex of our existing federal parliamentary democracy, and having a role and powers substantially the same as the Governor-General, recognising that we are a de facto republic already.

We will be far more likely to achieve national consensus on this if, instead, we debate the Head of State issue, and relegate the "r" word to the waste paper bin.

Any attempts to amend the Constitution are usually undermined by compulsory voting as the ignorant and apathetic are forced to vote on issues on which the have neither the interest nor understanding, they're probably impervious to rational arguments--to play safe the obvious vote is "No". If compulsory voting were abolished the chances of an Australian Head of State/ Republic would be increased considerably.

David would do well to heed his own words. He says here, "Imagine if we involved the Australian community in designing the republic, to live up to what's best about Australia."

Well I tried to do just exactly that over at the ARM's Facebook site. I wrote a few comments stating the truth and received the most intense abuse imaginable. Essentially, I said republicans need to accept we are independent and fully in control of our own destiny already and that to succeed at their last step to remove the crown, they have to decide how and what to do and then sell it by comparison to (and they accept this) our very successful present system. They have to stop abusing and ridiculing their opponents. They have to stop with the mushy slogans and tripe about "becoming fully independent" or not being identified as a "colonial outpost". All these defects are evident here in David's piece.

What result did I achieve? I was banned from the site.

So much for involving the Australian community. David Morris, take note.

David, what happened to the republic as an issue was that its significance was never properly explained in 1999, and we haven’t moved on since then.

If a republic is presented as getting rid of the Queen, most believe this has little practical impact on us, and think it’s not a priority.

If it is presented as ‘values, identity and place in the world’, as your ARM is currently doing, people find this unconvincing. Essentially we are independent, and removing the last of the colonial links is again unimportant compared to whether our jobs are safe and whether we can get through the worsening traffic.

Currently these unimpressive arguments are underlined by the lack of a clear model for change.

I have produced a clear model, which also explains the real significance of a republic. Removing the Crown only makes sense if the role and the powers of the Crown are removed, and replaced with a system based on democratic principle.

My model is at www.advancingdemocracy.info. If progressives started talking about it, the public’s interest in the issue would be reinvigorated.

How anyone in their right mind could advocate that Australia becomes a republic after the recent Government Shutdown and the Debt Ceiling Crisis in America is beyond me.

Australia doesn't need a republic. All it needs are some politicians with balls and a backbone and the intelligence to see that fawning over American is equivalent to making a pact with the Devil.

Wake from your dream, Australians. You are backing the wrong horse!

Neutrality is the best horse. Wins hands down!

Without banking reform, we are all doomed to abject slavery. Our banks create from nothing all the money to = growth + inflation. They own us and our Govts.