The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > An Australian Republic for the Asian Century > Comments

An Australian Republic for the Asian Century : Comments

By David Morris, published 19/4/2012

In the absence of any national consensus in Australia about our identity and our place in the world, our trading partners know that their relationships with us are shallow.

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All
It is certainly more than time for an Australian republic . Indeed , more than time for the United Kingdom to do the same . The UK should give the Windsor family redundancy packages and its members can pursue their real careers as talk show and reality TV performers .

Only yesterday , there was an announcement of a public inquiry by Britain into atrocities committted by British colonial officials in the Empire days .

Full credit to the British government for this announcement , even though it is belated . It acknowledges that the British Empire was not a totally benign institution . The British monarchy is a relic of a former empire , of which Australia was , without any choice , one member .

Retaining the constitutional requirement that the British monarch sign a document appointing our Governor General and State Governors , which are the only remaining functions performed by the British monarch , is insulting to Australia . It adds nothing to Australia's political stability .
Posted by jaylex, Thursday, 19 April 2012 9:28:31 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Strong national identities lead to wars and national rivalry. Recognising where our economic interests lie need have nothing to with national identify. I would like to see nations become nothing more than convenient administrative units. I applaud the blurring of national boundaries in the European Economic Union and think that is a good model to follow.

By all means make our economony less dependent on resource extraction, educate our children to know more about the cultures of the people around us and modern science and forget about national identity.

If we become a Republic and still have a head of state in addition to a head of government we have retained a useless functionary. Get rid of the head of state.
Posted by david f, Thursday, 19 April 2012 9:48:43 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
What utter rubbish David, you may be too immature to know who, or what, you are, but most of us do. We don't need some politician, or their adviser to tell us, who we are, or what to think.

Still that muddled thinking you display should stand you in good stead to pick up a PhD pretty easily.

With our immigration rate, multiculturalism, & a mountain of boat people, no one in the country will have any idea of who "we" are, or if "we" stand for anything, except being a good place for conman to make a buck.

None of this will tell anyone who we are, republic or monarchy, & what's more, none of them will give a damn, provided our coal & iron ore are the right price.
Posted by Hasbeen, Thursday, 19 April 2012 10:17:29 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Dear Hasbeen,

Sure, Australians know who they are. That's why there is no need to worry about national identity.
Posted by david f, Thursday, 19 April 2012 10:57:36 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Like most of these article, David Morris's blather is long on declarations and motherhood assertions and short on hard suggestions on how any of it might be achieved. Towards the end hs seems to suggest we could reinforce our 'Australia brand' by becoming a republic.

Would anyone outside Australia notice it much if we did become a republic? As even the Brits are only vaguely aware we are still technically a monarchy this seems unlikely. In other words, if do decide to do away with the outward form of monarchy, then it should be something Australians do for themselves, not because of soem idea that it will affect our national image, because it won't.

As for the rest of the article, sure our economy could be more diverse but at the moment the success of the resources sector has overshadowed all. With the terms of trade (high resource prices) now past its peak, the economy is likely to shift away from resources. Declarations by MBA holders won't affect this change. The many attempts made over decades to increase manufacturing, as one part of efforts to diversify the economy, have mostly failed.

As for making school kids learn Asian languages they've been talking about that for decades, with very little result. Instead, the Asians have been learning english. This is wrong, of course. We should learning Asian languages. But the reality is that the Asians are learning English (and school kids here are learning French and German). If Morris can think of some way to change this, let's hear it
Posted by Curmudgeon, Thursday, 19 April 2012 11:35:11 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
An incisive astute article from an erudite observer. It would be good if we could espouse our national values, if we but knew what they were. I suspect that they are all about common decency, which is surely universal rather than ours alone or limited to our part of the world? We certainly need to think beyond the current mining boom and our sycophantic dependence on a very muscular emerging super power China. We would do better to develop more interdependent trade links with a closer India, which is also a cricket mad democracy, and will continue to grow even as China, with its population controls, begins to age and or stagnate?
We must consider a future, where a truly independent Australia has become a major maritime power, with computer controlled ship building yards; and, (a) national freight forwarding roll on roll off nuclear powered shipping line(s). An inland shipping canal that entirely negates the need for most future shipping to navigate through a very threatened Reef.
Very rapid rail that removes the need for planes to fly major routes. We need to embrace carbon free/neutral alternatives; but particularly where test results demonstrate they are less costly than current coal-fired power, like very large scale solar thermal, where the arrays are mass produced via automation. Or wave power and local energy bio-production etc/etc, for the same reason. We simply should not build more coal-fired power stations unless or until we have at least successfully trialled carbon capture? My money is on nature and algae farming, which will capture carbon, up to 2.5 times their own bodyweight, which under optimised conditions can be made to double every 24 hours; and then provide the power and other companies additional revenue streams from the resultant bio-fuel production, which can continue indefinitely!
The only future that beckons beyond the mining boom is a very high tech one; and, we ought to be encouraging its strong emergence now, with the provision of even cheaper energy, vast tax and other economic reforms/massive simplification! Rhrosty.
Posted by Rhrosty, Thursday, 19 April 2012 3:02:08 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy