On the amusing and enlightening announcement by Graham Lloyd in The Australian (14/5) of the national release on 2 June, 2011 of the film, by Mark Lewis, Cane Toads: The Conquest 3D, I was reminded of the 1999 book, The Cane Toad Republic.
This was one of the two principal books ACM launched for the 1999 referendum campaign, among several other books published by ACM in the lead –up to the referendum.
But why was the name of this ghastly creature, the cane toad, used for this book?
The comment on the back cover explains this:
…book description..
Republicans do not claim that they will improve the constitution. Nor can they point to any real problem with the Queen, the Governor-General or the Governors.
In the 1930s, the nation did have a problem. Our sugar cane crop was being destroyed by the Greyback Beetle. The Queensland authorities decided to release a sackload of the Hawaiian Bufo Marinus into the canefields. They would deal with the Greyback Beetle.
The solution was not well thought out. It was worse than the problem.
For the Bufo Marinus liked Queensland. It ate everything except the Greyback Beetle. Why? The Greyback Beetle can fly. And Bufo can't.
This was the beginning of the Queensland cane toad disaster.
Today, we don't even have a problem. Yet, we are told we must amend the one part of the Constitution which works, and works well.
You will have noticed that as with the elites' agenda for some vague undefined politicians' republic, the cane toad is still here.