While supporting a plebiscite on whether Australia should become a republic if he were to win government in the next election, the Leader of HM Australian Opposition, the Honourable Kevin Rudd described the issue as "way down my list of priorities" — behind a strong economy, fairness in the workplace and elsewhere, climate change and a hard line on national security.
In an interview with Michael Gordon and Michelle Grattan published in The Age on 14 December 2006, Mr.Rudd said he was "relatively relaxed" about the idea of a directly elected president of an Australian republic if that is what the majority of voters want.
On a republic, he said: "I am not ideologically committed to an appointed presidency. I’m open-minded on that question. It would be good if we could get to a stage soon where we could say that one of us was our head of state."
Perhaps Mr. Rudd is trying to calm the ultra republicans who haunt both sides of parliament. Perhaps he actually believes that the adoption here of a French style republic would improve government, notwithstanding the over 20% youth unemployment that prevails there. We can only assume that Mr. Rudd is not aware that the plan for a plebiscite has been proposed by the republicans as a totally deceitful exercise to avoid showing their hand on what they want to do and to lock Australians into their hidden plans to concentrate power even more in the political class. Like Bob Carr’s closure of streets in Sydney to force motorists to use the universally detested cross city tunnel, the plebiscite is designed to lock Australians into whatever republic and flag the republicans secretly plan to foist on the nation, whatever the burden this places on present and future generations of Australians. The worst thing about this deceit is the demand that Australians cast a vote of no confidence in one of the world’s most successful constitutional systems, without even being told what secretive plan the republicans have.
Australians for Constitutional Monarchy warn any future prime minister, of whatever allegiance, that we will fight any attempt to circumvent the Constitution. We will call on our only resource, the more than 50,000 Australians who fought in the referendum, and the majority of Australians who voted with us in the referendum, to oppose this plan at every stage.