Wow Pericles, I feed some of your own words back to you and now I'm advocating for a republic?? Isn't squandering public monies on fun and good times enough reason to demand a change of figurehead?

Last time I looked, it was the British sovereign who got a mention in the Aussie constitution and not her son - and until that day arrives (God forbid!) and there is little or no choice remaining for the taxpayer, he should pay his own way like everyone else does. And for me, the lack of morality this man shows in this one situation alone is enough to hope that he buys the-love-of-his-life Camilla a villa in France and moves over there permanently...

And on symbolism Ian, isn't Queen Elizabeth II our symbolic head of state? Off your virtual soapbox Dude, a nice rave but one that doesn't make a lot of logic.

TrueBlue

Yes, TrueBlue, Queen Elizabeth II is our symbolic head of state, oddly enough. The good thing is that this symbol stands for institutional, cultural and historic ties with a global family of countries that I would like to draw Australia closer to. The republican symbol – a president – stands for separating Australia from that family of countries, something that I see as sad and parochial.

Australia and New Zealand, for example, are already very close. We can move freely between the two countries, our economies are extremely integrated, and I hope that we can continue move towards agreement on a single currency and eventual federation. Surely this whole process is greatly simplified by the fact that we have the same symbolic head of state.

I would also like to see the same situation emerge with Canada. If we can benefit by expanding Australia’s 20 million people to the 24 million or so of the ANZ domestic economy, why not go for the even greater economies of scale of a 55 million strong CANZ domestic economy? The same freedom of movement of people and investments that we have with New Zealand, but expanded to the other side of the Pacific. Once again, the process would be greatly simplified by having the same symbolic head of state, because what it symbolises is the great similarity between our institutions and values.

The whole nonsense of “an Australian head of state” just limits our view of the world. We need to think bigger, not smaller, and the monarchy – bizarre and anachronistic as it is – should actually make it easier for us to do that.