Mr Mark Latham has already indicated he wishes to change the very core of our Constitution. Worse, knowing as everyone does, that the republicans will not be able to win if they follow the constitutional path, he is wedded to a plebiscite. As we all know, a plebiscite is a glorified opinion poll designed by the spin-doctors. In our case its purpose will be to obtain a vote of no confidence in one of the world's most successful constitutions-without having the foggiest idea of what to put in its place. Talk about irresponsibility!
Now we had always known the republican campaign also involved throwing out our Flag –even if they can't agree on a substitute! When they thought they would have no difficulty in imposing any one of their republican models on what they thought was a gullible nation, which would be dazzled by their celebrities, the republicans were very open about the fact they were going to change the Flag. Perhaps they really believed we wanted that! In fact Kim Beasley went on the record to tell us the Keating government was actually planning to effect the change for the Centenary of Federation in 2001! And by the way, there was no talk about a referendum-the elites were presumably going to make the decision for us. And as a prelude of what was to come, Paul Keating refused to fly the flag on his chauffeured taxpayer provided car. He later confided to his republican ally on ABC TV, that the Australian flag" gets up his nose", as he so eloquently puts it. So the Australian flag was to be destined for the rubbish bin. But in fact the Australian people decided to consign the Keating government to the rubbish bin of history! And just to make the point, all of the constitutional monarchists-without exception- displayed our Flag on their -desks at the. Constitutional convention in 1998.
The republicans did not follow us-at the same time they were actually running an exhibition of new flags- from the banal to the atrocious – in Parliament House! The republicans later endorsed with their logo another exhibition of new flags to travel around the country. One of these had a white background with these words: * * * * OFF BACK TO FAGLAND (You can read about this in The Cane Toad Republic, which is now on the ACM site http://norepublic.com.au)