In a letter published under the heading “Our G-G, not Britain's,” in the Sydney Sun Herald on 15 July, 2007, Mr.Brian Buckley of Wahroonga, NSW wrote:
“David Flint from Australians for Constitutional Monarchy …is totally naive if he thinks there is a big majority in favour of returning to British appointments to be our governor-general. This outdated and pathetic attitude smacks in the face of Aussie independence.
“There will be no return to the past and if any government here considers this option they will be strongly opposed and any such appointment will be given a very hard time, made not welcome and driven out of our Aussie republic (in all but name). Michael Jefferey should be reappointed. He has done a marvellous job.”
I replied in a letter to the newspaper:
“In accusing me of being totally naïve, outdated and pathetic, Brian Buckley (15/7) misses the point. While the appointment of Prince William as Governor-General was never a serious option, republicans overreacted because they knew he would have been enormously popular.
"I do however agree with Mr Buckley about Major General Jeffery. He is doing a superb job and should be re-appointed. It’s good to see one republican dissent from their campaign against the Governor-General,culminating in the Republican Movement’s recent nasty personal attack on him.[See this column, 10 July, 2007] “That Mr. Buckley believes Australia is already a republic confirms the word is meaningless. As `Humpty Dumpty said : 'When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'”
That of course is why opinion polls asking people about “a republic” are of very limited value. Even the 1999 referendum question, which the republicans tried to distort by removing the words “President’ and “republic”, was inadequate. ACM said that the question should have also referred to the way the President could be dismissed, which was unique any known republic. As we said, under this republic, it would be easier for the Prime Minister to sack the President than his cook."