Fighting for the Republic by Malcolm Turnbull

Author:Malcolm Turnbull [Turnbull, Malcolm]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, General
ISBN: 9781743586860
Google: 2aXdDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing
Published: 2020-04-20T23:32:56.396989+00:00

This is a big improvement on the last one, but it still does not mention the process of public nomination and it uses the word ‘appoint’ rather than ‘approve’. Leaving out the reference to public nomination is worth at least a few per cent to the No side. Howard says he won’t budge, but the real test is what the Senate will do. I speak to Beazley and he assures me the Labor Party will stick to the recommendation of the Select Committee. He has grave doubts about the Democrats, however. We all do our best to lobby them. We will find out how effectively later this week.

Beazley and I muse about what happens if the referendum fails, although he insists we have a better than even-money chance of winning. Is there then no alternative to a direct-election model? Kim says that the republicans have tried to recruit the conservatives with a moderate proposal and, while we have been partially successful, Howard’s short-sighted obstinacy has prevented us from getting true bipartisanship.

So what do republicans do if we lose this time? Go for broke: a directly elected President, codified powers, all of which means much more change to the Constitution? It would be at least initially a popular, saleable model, but is it the right solution? Are we going to end up being permanently boxed in with a diminishing band of monarchists using populist rhetoric to prevent a moderate republican model ever succeeding?

It will take a long time to get agreement, even within the Labor Party, on the changes to the Constitution to render the President powerless. Also, the opposition to a republic will be much more credible. It is one thing for people to say that they would prefer to elect the President, quite another to vote for it if very credible figures are saying it will seriously damage our system of government. The problem with direct election, I remind Kim, is that there is no model. There has been virtually no discussion about it.

A meeting this evening at Singletons with the campaign team, or most of them. We discuss the ARM’s own advertising campaign, which is scheduled to begin on 29 August. The idea is to use ordinary people (i.e. actors pretending to be ordinary people) to discuss and flesh out the issues, including a rebuttal of the principal criticisms of the other side. The big problem is money. At this stage I have only about $500,000 committed from people other than Neville and myself. I am not sure the team have got the ads right, at least in terms of rebutting the No scare campaign.

TUESDAY, 10 AUGUST

The news is full of Howard’s decision to change the wording of the republic question. There is a lot of speculation as to what the Democrats will do. The Australian says they will buckle, the Australian Financial Review says they won’t. But the most important item in today’s news is a quote from Howard in the AFR, where he says that the proposed model would increase the power of the Prime Minister.

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