I deeply respect your right to hold and to express your opinion. But frankly I think this is a dead issue - who cares? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Meddling just causes grief. There's plenty of real and serious issues to worry about, other than this antique Irish gripe, at the moment.

As an appeal for an Australian republic, this is a fizzer. That we have to line up in slow immigrations lanes in the UK, that we have also treated UK citizens no differently from other foreigners in immigration and citizenship for decades, has no relevance to a harmless piece of our history and heritage.

Britain should abolish ancestral visas and permanent residence after four years for people who can’t make up their minds whether or not they are Australian – just as we should abolish dual citizenship here.

Peter van Vliet freely acknowledges the difficulties republicans are up against in the continuing (‘rising’ he says) fascination for anything royal, so why he and his fellow republicans bother is a mystery, particularly after their trouncing in a referendum.

Perhaps, though, there is no mystery. There is a tendency among some Australians to tear down what they hate and can’t control in favour of something they can control

Of course we should become a republic - it can be done with only trivial disruption to our democracy. A sensible case for our retention of the British monarchy is yet to be made. Of much greater concern is the rising power of the executive with its associated contempt for parliamentary process and now the erosion of our traditional legal freedoms. Dopey TV programs are irrelevant.
Surely we are slowly becoming a de facto colony of the USA.
Debating our ties with the UK seems outdated in comparison.

I just cannot understand these forelock tugging, grovelling, snivelling, cowering, cringing royalists, unless they are 'playing' for a knighthood.
Britain very nicely forgot us colonials, forgot our fighting on their behalf in four or so wars, forgot that we thought of ourselves as British.
Yes my first passport was coloured blue and I was described as a British subject and an Australian citizen.
Then Britain joined her old enemies in the common market and dumped her friends and fellow Brits.
From a once loyalist now I cannot stand this dis-functional, sick royal family. Now they are the archetype parasites and bludgers.
Queen eliz.11 of england, not Britain, not Scotland, Ireland, Wales nor any of the Commonwealth nations in these nations she would be QE1 congratulated the english cricket team on their victory over the colonials - us. NOT ONCE! did the queen of Oz congratulate her Australian team on their many successes.
Yet the 'bellies on the ground'compliant royalists continue worshipping this odd family. I think only one of eliz's children are married to their first partner now - only one. What a fantastic example.
The sooner we become a republic the better.
I have a dream of turning 100 years of age and receiving a telegram from Her (an Aboriginal for preference) Excellency the President of Australia. numba

Since the term "Australian" now can mean somebody born in Jordan, who can not speak English good enough to get a job, and who dreams of putting a bomb under an Australian train seat in order to murder as many of his fellow citizens as possible. Then I would put it to Mr van Piet, that British descended Australians are now more likely to be drawn towards maintaining links to the monarchy as a means of maintaining their own identity.

ANZAC day has now become the "Australia Day" for non hyphenated Australians, and it is becoming more important for us every year as the increasing crowds at cenotaphs bear witness. Other than rap music, nothing is more guaranteed to curle the lip of a non hyphenated Australian more than another "Australia Day" festivity where a bunch of ethnics dressed in "their" national costumes dance around singing "We are one, but we are ma-a-an-ny."

I would also put it to Mr van Fleet, that the concept of Multiculturalism is entirely to blame for the fact that Australians are now being discriminated against in Britain. The Brits figured out long ago that giving priority to Her Majesty's subjects in obtaining visas and immigration to Britain, meant that Britain had to accept some pretty undesirable nationalities who were former colonial subjects. Therefore, Britain had to disciminate against people of their own kith and kin in order to fend of the usual screams of racism from their own noisy, crime prone and welfare dependant ethnic minorities.

But the best thing about showing deference to royalty is that it really gets up the noses of trendy lefties like Scooper9 and Mahatma Sitting Duck. So that is another great reason to be an unreconstructed monarchist.

By bowing to the Queen, non hyphenated Australians "confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks"

And, "On thee our hopes we fix."

God save the queen.

Actually, like most people I regard our ongoing ties to Britain as little more than an anachronism that will inevitably be severed when we grow up sufficiently as a nation. Meanwhile it's a bit of a non-issue - unlike our slavish acceptance of and dependence upon American neocolonial ideologies.

Unlike certain correspondents, I was happily weaned from my mother's breast as a toddler, and therefore am not burdened with an ongoing mother fixation. Australia will wean itself off 'Mother England' when it's ready, but I fear that it's too late for some individuals who seem to get their jollies from picking fights and killing defenceless animals.