However popular Bryce’s activism, it does highlight questions surrounding the head of state if there were an Australian republic.
Given modern public opinion, it is unlikely Australians would accept anything other than a popularly elected president. This is the model hated by many politicians (and Malcolm Turnbull in his pre-politician days when he headed the republic movement). They fear an elected president, unless the office’s powers were very precisely codified, could in extreme circumstances become a competing power centre to the prime minister.
Maybe the complexity of these issues is one more reason why the Rudd Government has been notably slow to put further flesh on Labor’s commitment to a republic. Nearly a year on we are still waiting for its answers to ideas — of which support for a republic was one of the most favoured — to come out of the 2020 summit, a gathering that at the time seemed quite important to the PM.
Michelle Grattan is political editor.
Well Michelle, do we have a custom-made model for you…
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