In a recent Interview with Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC, Renowned Australian actor Hugh Jackman feels that Australia shall be Inevitably a Republic someday.
In what he termed the Natural part of the evolution of a country, that actor, who is a dual citizen of both Australia-UK, had no ill feelings toward the Royal family and wished King Charles “all the best” as he continues to be the head of the British Commonwealth.
The actor’s parents are from the UK and recall celebrating royal occasions as a child.
“My father made us stop doing whatever we could in 1981 to watch the wedding of Lady Di and Prince Charles,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, “We had Champagne… there was no bunting at our house, but if my dad could have found it there would have been”(Hugh Jackman_ Inevitable That Australia Will Become a Republic – BBC News, n.d.).
He also stated his admiration for the Royal Family, citing that “I’ve met the Queen on several occasions, the Queen Mother and Prince Charles… and I see and feel a genuine desire to be of service to the public”(Hugh Jackman_ Inevitable That Australia Will Become a Republic – BBC News, n.d.).
At Inpac times, we look into Australia’s historical origins and the Republic Conundrum that has always gripped the Island Nation, which is often the veil of Global Frontline Geopolitics.
Into the World of “Terra Australis”: The Island Nation Historical Origins.
Earliest Origins and the aboriginal people
The nomenclature of Australia comes from the Latin word Terra Australis (“southern land”). Then, the Roman empire predated the common era and coined this term in Latin for any land towards the South of the Indian Sub-Continent. This term kept continuing till the European Renaissance. Although Australian History, like the World, over is recorded from the European perspective when the European Navigational discoveries took centre stage at the dawn of the renaissance era, the continent was never in any Geopolitical Navigation interests for an extended period.
However, little was known of Human inhabitation preluding the European Exploration of the continent. In many sources, humans have thought to arrive in Australia about 30,000 years ago; they were called aborigines, as the term indicates, the first of the earliest inhabitants of the land, also referred to as the “Australian First Nations”. Accounts have suggested that these people were primarily hunter-gatherers or nomads, but even those accounts must be thoroughly researched.
As European contact came into prominence and settlements rose, frontiers wars took place as settlers’ land occupation was required considering its vast areas on the continent landscape was either Desert or Sub Tropical Outback. With British Imperialism continuing in the 19th Century, most aboriginal lands were forcefully taken with much of treaties being signed, unlike their presence in North America and New Zealand.
But the worst was to come from 1871 to 1969 in a period called the Stolen generation when Aboriginals and Torres Islanders’ children were mixed race were removed from their families, which was done by various levels of Independent Australian governments and Church Missions. This was done to preserve full-blooded aboriginal people who became extinct after European contact, a policy abolished in 1969 and condemned by the Kevin Rudd Government in 2007.
Despite their tumultuous history, the aboriginal population thrives at 817,000 and serves Australia in many facets of life.
European – British Colonial Establishment
After the loss of Many North American colonies of the British Empire due to the American Revolutionary War, Britain was considering replacement territories. It was searching for a new world where they could deport close to 50,000. This led to the first major British Settlement in Botany Bay by Lieutenant James Cook on 29th April 1770.
(The Landing of James Cook in Botany Bay, New South Wales, was a watershed moment in Australian History which was earmarked the British Presence, although it should be noted that this was first set up as a Penal Colony, Picture Source National Gallery of Victoria).
Until 1820, British Settlement was largely confined towards Sydney and its 100 kilometres. By 1850, the population reached 180,000, and the birth of a separate colony of Victoria emerged.
New colonies like Tasmania, Queensland, Southern and Western Australia were added, and settlement continued to thrive, with over 2 million migrating from the European Continent.
The Victorian Gold Rush did ensure significant economic development. Agriculture Industry thrived, and railroads expanded their presence with the increase in immigration labour required for the transportation and wool industry, establishing Sydney and Melbourne as commercial destinations.
Federation of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia was created after the approval of the draft constitution by the Australian voters; the British Parliament then passed legislation ensuring the commonwealth be formed, certain defined or all the residual powers were given to its 6 British Colonies that were present. This process was completed on 1st 1901.
After the formation of the commonwealth Australian Economy grew substantially, with the country being heaven for wool production, this coincided with significant immigration totaling 200,000 from 1911 to 1913.
After Australia fought two world wars alongside the British Empire, there was a great deal of Post-war migration. Further, the Menzies Government passed the migration act of 1958, and further changes ended the White Australia Policy, which came to a legal end in 1973. Integrating different races meant the growing need for the Australian Republic had been sensed among its inhabitants.
Australian Political System and the growing need for a Republic.
Australia has always been a mixed system of government. It constitutes three significant facts, a representative democracy where Australians would vote for members of parliaments to make laws on their behalf. Constitutional Monarchy where the King of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth is the Head of State but does not have absolute power and requires following the Australian Constitution. The king’s power is channelized to the Governor General. Lastly, Australia is also a Federation of States where their law-making is given to the national government. Still, a more significant local law-making power is given to the states.
Despite the royal tour of Queen Elizabeth 2nd, which saw 7 million Australians out to see her, the post-Whitlam Era constitutional crisis made many Australians urge the need for a republic as too much power was vested with the Governor General after John Kerr dismissed Edward Whitlam and appointed opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as Prime Minister.
But however Australian Republican Movement gained momentum after Prime Minister Paul Keating created the Australian Republican Movement advocacy group in 1991. however, Keating’s party lost the 1996 federal election in a landslide, and John Howard, a monarchist, as prime minister replaced him.
Finally, in 2022 after the demise of Queen Elizabeth 2, former Prime Minister Julia Gillard felt that Australia would inevitably be a Republic, but the timing of the debate would matter.
