August 11

Depression no excuse for misrepresentation to BBC

 

The head of the republican movement has admitted that he is "very depressed'' at the media reaction to the birth of baby Prince George, our future King: ''Birth of prince leaves Australian republicans 'depressed'".

This did not justify his making two unjustifiable claims on  the BBC  World Service on the morning of the birth (I had been invited to take part as a "friend" of the presenter)

The first was that the majority of Australians wanted a (politicians) republic. This is untrue. A glance at our analysis of opinion polling will show that support for a republic is most likely  somewhere in the thirty percentile. Even the ARM's own pollster shows support in the higher forties, but that pollster is always significantly higher than all of the others.

David Morris also claimed the 1999 referendum was between  two republican models. It was not. The only model on the table was the one developed and pushed by   his republican movement at enormous public expense.

The Australian people, on the advice of our founders, chose the Swiss style method of changing the constitution.

Why must the republicans misrepresent their case?



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