“In a bizarre way I feel sorry for the Australian Republican movement,” wrote former Minister of the Crown and former Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in the eighties, Neil Brown QC.
This appeared in his regular column, “Brown Study”, in The Spectator Australia, 8 December 2012.
“When I saw the coach roll down Pall Mall at the royal wedding, the Queen set sail in her barge at the jubilee and, now, when I heard the news that William and Kate are to have a baby, I watched the republican case get weaker still.
“If another referendum were held today, the republican proposal would fail again.
…. more than affection for the Royal Family..
“Nor is this simply because of the affection we have for the royal family and the pomp and circumstance of royalty.
“I think it is, at least in part, because of the decline in the respect for the traditional party political structure that would choose or influence the choice of the president.
“The carbon tax lie, the corruption steaming up from the New South Wales Labor Party, the union movement with its slush funds, the shameless wheeler- dealing of the so-called independents and the patent immorality of Peter Slipper and Craig Thompson, have been the main contributors to this decline.
“People want something better than they are getting, and constitutional monarchy offers an ideal above reproach," he concluded.