http://www.thepunch.com.au/tags/republic/ Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arise-sir-john-who-dares-bring-back-the-knighthood/ Pop quiz – name an AC (Companion of the Order of Australia). Quick! Nice try but probably no cigar. At the risk of putting two and two together and coming up with 147, The Punch detects (speculates wildly) the time might be ripe for a swing back to the days of Sirs and Dames. Perhaps it’s John Howard’s induction into the Order of Merit or the fact the Queen finished 2011 with a grin as wide as the Empire of old. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arise-sir-john-who-dares-bring-back-the-knighthood/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/arise-sir-john-who-dares-bring-back-the-knighthood/#item7472 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-so-bloody-average-but-so-are-these-hot-shots/ Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-so-bloody-average-but-so-are-these-hot-shots/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/were-so-bloody-average-but-so-are-these-hot-shots/#item7214 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-queen-is-not-the-glue-holding-australia-together/ Alexander Downer has a disturbing lack of faith in Australia and Australians. How else to explain his column in The Advertiser where he appeared to suggest without the good graces of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Australia would slip into some sort of blood-soaked revolution. Mr Downer invoked the situation in Libya, mentioned the horrors of the Russian Revolution and even the French Revolution then pondered why our nation is “quiet, placid, peaceful Australia”. His conclusion? The Queen. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-queen-is-not-the-glue-holding-australia-together/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-queen-is-not-the-glue-holding-australia-together/#item7002 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/long-to-reign-over-us-royals-have-the-edge-on-republicans/ We now know courtesy of the Queen’s meeting with horseracing king Bart Cummings that Her Majesty is not much of a punter. Were she so inclined, the Queen could do worse than wagering a lazy fiver on the chances of the British Royal Family seeing off any renewed push by Australian Republicans for constitutional change. I write this as a republican of the most common kind; the do-nothing kind, the kind who is slightly irritated that we had our chance at constitutional change and blew it, but doesn’t care enough to do anything about revisiting the issue. The two things which jarred with me most about the republican push in Australia were the ineffective tactics used to market constitutional change, with the yes vote spearheaded by two of our worst prime ministers, the economically incompetent Gough Whitlam and the do-nothing Malcolm Fraser, and the overblown claims as to the impact any change would have on our national psyche, as if we are somehow a weak and insipid nation for being a constitutional monarchy. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/long-to-reign-over-us-royals-have-the-edge-on-republicans/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/long-to-reign-over-us-royals-have-the-edge-on-republicans/#item6991 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-shall-make-a-swift-visit-to-ones-colony/ Her Majesty will be warmly and enthusiastically welcomed today because it is always a grand occasion when Australia’s head of state is actually on Australian soil. Rare, but grand nevertheless. Mind you, she is only here because of next week’s Commonwealth summit in Perth. We outsoure the pinnacle position in our democratic structure but the woman herself is splendidly separate from that awkward constitutional arrangement. She is special. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-shall-make-a-swift-visit-to-ones-colony/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/one-shall-make-a-swift-visit-to-ones-colony/#item6951 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/long-to-reign-over-us-our-immovable-royals/ What a month it’s been for our Royal Family. Yesterday we pretended to celebrate the Queen’s Birthday, even though it’s not actually her birthday at all. Despite having a perfectly functional and distinctly Australian honours system on January 26, in keeping with tradition we again used the Queen’s pretend birthday to recognise those Australians who have given of themselves to the community. While their efforts should be recognised, it seems quaint that this recognition is still linked to old concepts of Empire which our new system of publicly-elected honours recipients sought to phase out some 34 years ago. On Friday, the Duke of Edinburgh turned 90, granting a rare interview to the BBC to observe the occasion. Prince Philip said that as he entered his 10th decade on earth he now intended to shift things down a gear. “I reckon I’ve done my bit,” he said, without elaborating as to what his “bit” actually was, unless you count making off-colour remarks to dusky chaps in the former colonies as a form of employment. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/long-to-reign-over-us-our-immovable-royals/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/long-to-reign-over-us-our-immovable-royals/#item6071 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-king-is-dead-long-live-the-king/ This Easter the world seems full of believers. Religious and Royal. Tomorrow, billions will celebrate the resurrection of their King, Jesus Christ. But this year, there’s another King-to-be who’s stealing the limelight. Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave over the past few days (no offence, Jesus. Thank God for Mary Magdalene), you’d be well aware the wedding of the century is six sleeps away. And with this wedding many hope there’ll be a resurrection of a different kind. The resurrection of the monarchy. There will be no heavy cross to carry. No rags. No bare feet. No beard. Quite the opposite. There will be carriages, horses with plaits, the Beckhams, trumpets and the world’s most celebrated modern couple – Prince William and Kate Middleton. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-king-is-dead-long-live-the-king/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-king-is-dead-long-live-the-king/#item5691 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-irish-want-australia-to-be-free-of-england/ I emigrated here in 1987. As many as one million Irish had made the same trip before me and quite a few have since. Among them were convicts and radicals, priests and judges, nurses and nuns, saints and scholars. I became a citizen in June, 1994, alongside 90 other Irish expats at the Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney – a building that how houses a beautiful monument to the Great Irish Famine. It was an emotional day. The significance of embracing a new citizenship was not lost on any of us. Irish and Australian songs were played and sung. The Department of Immigration wondered why so many Irish had suddenly decided that they would become Australian citizens. It was not an impulse move. The Irish had waited patiently for Australia to change. Weeks earlier, the Labor government had gotten rid of a certain oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth, the English monarch. Now, almost 20 years later, we are waiting for Australia to change again. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-irish-want-australia-to-be-free-of-england/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-irish-want-australia-to-be-free-of-england/#item5380 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-republic-debate-is-about-more-than-just-the-royals/ On April 29 this year, Prince William will marry Kate Middleton. In October, the Queen will visit Perth for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. As the person responsible for media at the Australian Republican Movement (ARM), I predict that these will be my two busiest times of the year. Whenever anyone mentions royalty in an Australian context, the media then thinks “republic” and more often than not gives me a call. This is as it should be, since the media knows that the majority of Australians want Australia to be a republic now or at the end of the Queen’s reign - at least 60 per cent, according to most polls. On the other hand, it means that the ARM sometimes spends more time talking about royal personalities and personages rather than the things that really matter to us - why an Australian Republic is so important to Australia. The fact is, we have nothing against the personalities - it is the institution that is the problem. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-republic-debate-is-about-more-than-just-the-royals/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/the-republic-debate-is-about-more-than-just-the-royals/#item5034 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert. http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-dysfunctional-enduring-relationship-with-royalty/ Anyone seeking linguistic confirmation of the weirdness that comes from associating with royalty should look no further than our very own dinki-di princess Mary Norgen-Vaaz, or whatever her surname became after she got hitched to that rich norseman. Almost overnight, Mary went from being just another foxy bogan chick dancing around her handbag at Sydney’s Slip Inn, punching in the Bacardi Breezers and wooo-hoooing when Blur’s Song #2 came on, to sounding like some la-di-dah Queen Elizabeth impersonator. Not only did her perfectly normal Australian intonations make way for the plummy accent which the BBC defines as “received English”, she even adopted the tortured sentence structures of QEII. On the occasion that one becomes a member of the Danish Royal Family one is struck not only by one’s sense of duty but also one’s place in a long and proud tradition, one is. Princess Mary is of course a perfectly nice person and her relationship with Prince Frederik could be described unimaginatively as a fairy tale. The same can be said of Prince William and Kate Middleton who are now doing their bit for magazine circulation and the sale of Franklin Mint commemorative plates by tying the knot. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Tory Shepherd) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-dysfunctional-enduring-relationship-with-royalty/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/our-dysfunctional-enduring-relationship-with-royalty/#item4508 Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:28 +0000 Before our necks had even cooled, the latest foreign dignitaries to hit Australia have got us all hot under the collar again. Our Mary and her husband Prince Fred conquered Canberra yesterday, just as the Ba-rockstar President of the United States did last week and the Her Maj less than a month before. Australians swoon when foreign royalty or might-as-well-be-royalty hit our shores. And over the past couple of months we’ve been swooning like 12-year-olds at a Justin Bieber concert.