Australia is not too timid to ditch the monarchy, they just don't want to.

The polls make this clear.

Australians will have to decide
If a well trained king they can abide
A commando king trained by the best
A military man who won't settle for less
A king we really can't compare
When a leaky pen is able to ensnare.

>"(a) What advantages, if any, accrue by the change to a republican form of government?"

You will notice that that is exactly what the republicans cannot and do not answer. They simply enter the discussion having assumed that everyone else is as hateful and muddled and eager to destroy our traditions and culture as they are.

One of the real motivators is that are still fouling their pants over Whitlam having been dismissed in 1975. Whitlam was trying to govern by mere executive fiat without consent of Parliament, which is exactly the reason why Charles I got this head cut off in the first place. The Queen and her viceroy acted entirely correctly in referring the constitution crisis caused by Whitlam's abusive lust for power, to the will of the people who settled it by getting rid of him. Dismissal was the least of it: a flogging followed by dismissal would have been more to the point.

The one constant underlying the republican cause is that they share Whitlam's attitude. They couldn't care less about the people - that is only their cover. It's about power, that is all. They just wish that they were king.

The people now telling us they want an Australian are the same ones who have been telling us since Whitlam how dreadful it is to discriminate against non-Australians.

The only make fools of themselves pretending they don't know about Australia's British history and heritage.

Cumberland,
Not only that but they will waste billions trying to achieve their aims.
Money that could be spent on other things, such as flood mitigation.

I wonder if, having wasted the money will they give a damn about the homeless who may die in winter or the struggling mother trying to feed her kids on an inadequate income or the people killed on bad roads because of cutbacks on spending?

Australians all we can't rejoice
For we're not one and free
We need to break the ties we have
With the British monarchy

We need to stand on our own two feet
And not continue to repeat
The falsehoods of the past
We need to tell the historic truth
And make sure that it lasts

Only stupid people think that we are not "free", or "not standing on our own two feet", because of our constitution.