You have heard of Mr Keating’s "Feral Republic of Australia"- actually what he proposed was a "Federal Republic of Australia", but the wags said it sounded as if he were saying "feral". But you have probably not heard of Feralhave you heard of the "Oxymoronic Republic of Australia"!
With the republican movement’s official policy of forcing Australians to vote until they get it right, while claiming that they haven’t the foggiest idea what they want, individual republicans are themselves filling the vacuum.
They are designing all sorts of bizarre models for some sort of republic.
Hence the "Oxymoronic Republic of Australia".
We first learned of this when one republican was explaining his proposal for not just one but two –yes two – presidents, an “executive president” and an “honorary president”.
This was at a hearing before that scandalous waste of time and money, the Senate Inquiry into forcing a republic onto the reluctant Australian people.
A Mr Latimer was detailing his proposal at the hearing on 13 April, 2004, when he said:
“I originally started with the idea that the honorary president should be unpaid, but it seemed a little bit unreasonable.So regarding costs, I am expecting that the honorary president would be paid.”
Does this mean each state will have an executive and an honorary, but paid, governor?
An Oxymoronic Republic indeed.
I was attacked recently for making the following observation by an anonymous correspondent, but I affirm its truth:
No money is paid -or has ever been paid- to The Queen of Australia for the services she has rendered so faithfully and so well and for so long- a period which represents over half the life of this nation.