Republic back on the table, declared the headline in The Sunday Telgraph,14 June,2009. It isn’t. The opening sentence said “Anti- monarchists have met with staff within the office of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to discuss a time frame for Australia to become a republic.”
The republican movement still refuses to say what form of politicians’ republic or what new flag they are planning. They propose an expensive convoluted process involving a cascading series of plebiscites and referendums.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister told reporter Linda Simalis that Mr. Rudd maintained his view that Australia would become a republic.
“The Prime Minister believes it is inevitable that Australia will become a republic, but it is not a top order priority right now.”
This of course is code that a plebiscite will not be held this term or at the election. No one is talking about a referendum yet. This is because everybody knows a referendum is doomed. But what the spokesman didn’t say is that the advice to government is that a plebiscite is risky no matter how well the spin doctors write it.
Apart from leaving this world, what are inevitable are taxes, and with the debt the government is running up, that taxation will be significantly increased.