When Mr Turnbull was elected Leader, the Prime Minister invited him to join in making Australia some sort of republic.
This attempt to drive a wedge through the liberal Party was unworthy.
The Constitution is far too important than to be used for this purpose.
When Mr. Turnbull refused the bait, the government made much play over Mr. Turnbull’s wealth.
The suggestion was that Mr Turnbull was thus disqualified from sitting in parliament because he is wealthy.
But so is Mr. Rudd.
Samuel Johnson observed that the pursuit of wealth is a relatively harmless activity.
And as Tom Bethel ( American Spectator , September 2008) points out, the great evils of the 20th century were committed not by the wealthy, but by power hungry idealists who were contemptuous of money.
In any event, we are not concerned that the leaders of our two major are rich.
It is that they both committed to removing that check and balance on the political branch, the Australian Crown, from the Constitution.
The prime minister unconvincingly claims he is a “lifelong republican,” but as Mr Turnbull says, he did not seem to be on the barricades in 1999.
And when he was standing for Wentworth, Mr. Turnbull made the activism of his republicanism so conditional, it is unlikely to become active for many years.
Let us hope both will now concentrate on the real problems which confront this nation.
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