Once assumed inevitable, elite so-called ‘republicanism’ suffered a landslide defeat at the hands of a nationwide grassroots movement in the 1999 referendum. Long comatose, their republic has just passed away, unmourned.
It has taken elite ‘republicans’ more than two decades to understand that when Australians say NO to questionable constitutional change, they mean NO.
Instead, they have clung to a forlorn hope that the accession of King Charles III would provide a magical silver bullet which would change everything. It has not.