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The Australian Republic Referendum, 1999
Author(s) -
CROSS BERNARD
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the political quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.373
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-923X
pISSN - 0032-3179
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-923x.2007.00890.x
Subject(s) - referendum , prime minister , government (linguistics) , immigration , the republic , political science , national consciousness , political economy , economic history , politics , sociology , law , history , philosophy , linguistics , theology
The 1999 Australian republic referendum was intended to finalise the nation‐building process begun in the mid‐nineteenth century and to exploit growing national consciousness in the wake of post‐World War II cosmopolitan immigration and the 1988 bicentenary. Despite strong republican support recorded by opinion polls and a broadly favourable media climate the proposal to institute a republic was defeated. The article summarises the campaign and explores some of the reasons that have been advanced, including the part played by the prime minister, for its outcome; it concludes that ‘the model’ might have been a contributory factor, but probably not the sole explanation. A re‐run is unlikely before the election of a sympathetic, probably Labor, government. The episode illustrates the immensity of the difficulty facing republicans in Britain where similarly favourable conditions are inconceivable in the foreseeable future.