• 1 December 2005: Nicola Roxon's address to the new parliamentary republic group is printed in The Australian. She says their goal is to provide a non-partisan, cross-party forum for members of parliament who support having an Australian head of state, to play an educative role and to keep the issue on the constitutional agenda. WfaAR would like to see this group broaden its agenda to the Republic in general and what that means for Australia rather than confine their interests to a home-grown head of state.

• 30 November 2005: Emma Tom concludes in her opinion piece in The Australian that the down-to-earth farm worker Wendy Slack-Smith, who was runner-up in the Australian Princess competion (a reality TV show) to become hitched to a rich Englishman, could put her skills to much better use as..... the first president of the republic. She is described as "a fine human being".

• 20 November 2005: a cross-party parliamentary republic support group is launched in the national parliament in Canberra. Two of the three convenors are women: Senator Natasha Stott Despoja (Democrats SA) and Ms Nicola Roxon, ALP Member for Gellibrand in the lower house and shadow Attorney-General. They are joined by Senator Mitch Fifield (Liberal Vic).

• 26 October 2005: a poll in a tabloid newspaper finds former Aussie, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, is preferred to Prince Charles as Australia's next head of state.

• 12-13 August 2005: Women for an Australian Republic was represented at a meeting of all republican groups. WfaAR identified its priorities as passion for the campaign; action at grass roots level not just lobbying directed at politicians; working together on the hard issues and identifying ways to sustain campaigners on the road ahead. We cautioned that the Republic should mean a lot more to people than merely working out a way to select the head of state and that women and Indigenous people had to be involved in all aspects of creating the Republic.

• 6 August 2005: ARM National Director, Allison Henry, was invited to be one of two young women working in the political sphere, who spoke in Old Parliament House Canberra to celebrate the 30th anniversary of International Women's Year in 1975.

• 24 June 2005: Prominent New Zealanders, among them former Governor-General Dame Cath Tizzard, call for a new flag to distinguish it from the Australian flag. Prime Minister Helen Clark went further saying that she would like the Union Jack to be removed. NZFlag has launched a petition to secure 300,000 signatures for a referendum to be held on the flag at this years general election in New Zealand. For more information: www.nzflag.com

• 11 June 2005: Pam Casellas writing in The West Australian reports that the Governor-elect is urging Western Australians to engage in constructive debate about Australia becoming a republic. His pre-decessor had similar views. This is encouraging news from the West: WA voted strongly against the Republic in the 1999 referendum.

• 15 April: Practical steps towards severing ties with the British monarchy quietly continue to be implemented. Last year, the NSW Branch of the Country Women's Association voted to stop singing God Save the Queen at meetings, the National Song Poll (plebiscite) having chosen Advance Australia Fair as the national anthem in 1977! Following the example of other States, the NSW and WA parliaments are currently considering omitting reference to the Queen from the oath of allegiance for parliamentarians and public officials. In NSW, Crown land is now called State land. Senior Counsel has for some time replaced the term Queen's Counsel (Sourced from John Warhurst's weekly column in The Canberra Times)

• 6 April: That tireless republican, Senator Amanda Vanstone, renews her call for an Australian Republic albeit one that entails minimal changes to the Constitution to install an Australian head of state. Senator Vanstone, a senior Minister in the Howard Government, cautioned republicans against bagging the monarchy and monarchists in a speech at the University of Adelaide. Elizabeth Colman writing in The Australian also reported that Senator Vanstone is understood to be considering "a full-scale campaign to back the push [involving other Coalition MPs in a new cross-party support group] including the distribution of T shirts with a picture of the Queen and the slogan: "if you love her, set her free".

• 11 March: The official visit of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and her husband to Australia winds up. The 33 year old Hobart-born royal was a huge hit with crowds of women who turned out to greet and see her in a replay of the Diana-mania that fixated the country in 1983. Among detailed and lengthy descriptions of her glamorous wardrobe, Princess Mary was described as turning out in a "flirty white skirt" to view a mob of kangaroos in the grounds of Government House in Canberra. This again highlights the eagerness of Australian women to be seduced by the romance of monarchy and the "princess for a day" syndrome so beloved of local women's magazines - and it does not bode well for the next republic referendum. Even mature commentators and letter writers took leave of their senses and called for Australia to become part of the Kingdom of Denmark in order to adopt Mary and Frederik as our heads of state. In contrast, the immediately following but more business-focussed and less photographed visit of Crown Princess Victoria, heir to the Swedish throne, hardly raised a jot of interest.

• 3 March: Allison Henry, National Director of the ARM, speaks at The Sydney Institute about Prince Charles' visit. She contends that Charles knows and has known for some time that Australia's "borrowed monarchy" has worn out its welcome, referring to remarks that he made about Australia's apparent preference for a republic on his last visit in 1994. She thinks that swinging voters stick with the Queen but will vote republican when they contemplate King Charles III on the English throne. An extract of her speech was published in The Age.

• 2 March: Nicola Roxon, Labor Shadow Attorney-General, writes about Charles as a relic of another era and claims that his visit was completely overshadowed by that of the future Queen of Denmark in a feature article in The Australian. She says that the simultaneous royal visits command us to think again about our odd Constitution which provides for someone so far away, so disconnected with our country as our head of state. And she outlines Labor's approach to the change: expansion of the debate by going back to the basics and asking what we think the role of our head of state should be; what powers should they have and what should be their relationship to the Government? Should their powers be limited by words in the Constitution or simply by convention? Should we codify the existing system or opt for another model like the one in Ireland?

• 26 February: The impending British royal marriage has a dramatic impact on support for an Australian republic - factor in Charles and Camilla and women's support for an Australian republic skyrockets! A Galaxy Research survey published in The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) with a sample size of 400 adults over 16 throughout Australia shows 50 percent of female respondents in favour, 17 percent uncommitted and 33 percent against when asked "If Prince Charles and Camilla were Australia's head of state, would you be in favour of Australia becoming a republic?" (note that 64 percent of women compared with 59 percent of men were in favour of Charles stepping aside for William). In the same survey, 44 percent of women compared with 53 percent of men were in favour of Australia becoming a republic and when asked when the next referendum should be: 33 percent of women (43 percent men) nominated in this term of parliament; 45 percent of women (41 percent of men) opted for the next 3 to 10 years; 16 percent of women (10 percent of men) said "never" and six percent of both sexes were undecided.

• 18 February: Polly Toynbee writes in The Guardian Weekly that she wished Charles and Camilla had eloped to Gretna Green to avoid the avalanche of "monarchalia". She ponders whether Camilla is planning a quick trip to the IVF clinic in Rome that supplies babies to the post-menopausal and labels this all rather disgusting "and certainly not a dignified way of arriving at who should be head of state." She calls upon Prime Minister Blair to set up a constitutional convention after the next general election to look at the question of a second British republic. She says that Charles is not warmly embraced as the next monarch and few care one way or another about his marriage. She hopes that Camilla will be a wise influence on Charles and speculates that the marriage will be a watershed reopening debate about the monarchy. She thinks that if Charles were clever "he might convene a great constitutional convention himself. The very least he might propose is a referendum to gain the consent of the people before ascending the throne" - WfaAR comment: now there's a novel use for a referendum.

• 11 February: The announcement of Prince Charles' (future King Charles III of Australia) marriage to Camilla Parker Bowles (possibly to be our Queen Camilla) on 8 April brought a new flurry of republican sentiment and increased membership for republican groups.  Jenny Katauskas of Wahroonga NSW had her views published in The Australian - click here.

• 7 February: The Prime Minister of Barbados announces that voters would be involved in making the decision on whether Barbados would become a republic by the end of 2005 taking the country "to a higher and mature plane of political development". It is proposed that Barbados become a parliamentary republic with a ceremonial head of state while remaining a member of the Commonwealth. The small Caribbean island (pop 275,000) was colonized by Britain in the 1600s and became independent in 1966. The idea of a republic was first explored by a constitutional review in 1979. A second review in 1996 found that Barbadians were in favour of electing their head of state (report by AAP Reuters).

• 28 January: Senator Lyn Allison, leader of the Democrats, speaks in favour of the Republic in response to the Newspoll results published on Australia Day. Kim Beazley replaces Mark Latham as Leader of the Opposition and publicly states his continuing support for an Australian Republic.

• 26 January 2005: A Newspoll published in The Australian asked people if they were in favour of Australia becoming a republic. 40 percent of women were either strongly or partly in favour with 38 percent against and 22 percent uncommitted (this compares with 51 percent of men in favour, 33 percent against and 16 percent uncommitted; overall 46 percent of those polled were in favour with 19 percent uncommitted). The sample size was 1200 in all States; adults aged over 18 and taken in both city and country areas. This is the lowest level of support for this question recorded by Newspoll since July 1999 with support previously running consistently in the low 50 percents since August 1999 just before the referendum.

• 30 December 2004: Australian newspapers reported that letters of credential and recall for Canadian ambassadors would be addressed to and approved by the Governor General, Hong Kong-born Adrienne Clark, rather than to Queen Elizabeth II who is also Queen of Canada. One of main reasons for the change was considered to be Canada's significant immigration from Asia since the 1980s.

• 6 December: - Celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade again focus attention on the Republic and the lingering impact of British colonization. Christine Shaw of Woronora NSW put forward her views on the outdated design of the Australian flag: "When we really get ourselves organised and ditch our ties to England, may we please nominate the Eureka flag for our national flag. It's a beauty." she wrote to The Sydney Morning Herald.

• 20 November: Can a monarchy be modern? Recent utterances by Prince Charles, who will be Australia's next head of state under the current arrangements, bring a new round of questioning about the relevance of monarchy to contemporary government. Joan Smith writing in The Independent (UK) newspaper summed it up this way: "With his spectacularly undistinguished career, disasterous marital history and grandiose self-delusions, Prince Charles is a prime candidate for therapy. What he most decidedly does not look like is a modern head of state."

• 18 November: State Premier, Paul Lennon (Labor), announces the new Governor of Tasmania following the resignation of controversial republican, Richard Butler. There was consultation with the leaders of the Opposition Liberal and Greens parties before the appointment was recommended to the Queen, a first for the State.

• 18 November: Senator Natasha Stott Despoja (SA) speaks in The Senate about the recommendations of "The road to a republic", the findings of the Senate Inquiry into the Republic. Her remarks can be found at www.aph.gov.au, Senate Hansard for 18 November, pages 140 to 142.

• 18 November: "I believe we must prioritise reconciliation with our Indigenous community, embrace the diversity of our multicultural society and place confidence in our nation to be a strong and independent republic" - first speech made by new Labor member for Adelaide, 27 year old Kate Ellis in the House of Representatives. Other new members elected in the 2004 federal election to support the republic in their first speeches were former ARM Chair, Malcolm Turnbull (Liberal, Wentworth NSW); Convenor of Conservatives for an Australian Head of State, Andrew Robb (Liberal, Goldstein Vic) and former Midnight Oil lead singer and conservationist, Peter Garrett (Labor, Kingsford Smith NSW). The full text of first speeches can be found on members' sites at www.aph.gov.au, click on Who's Who.

• 13 November: Prime Minister Helen Clark announces a constitutional stocktake in New Zealand. There are two very good background papers about the reasons for the review including issues such as the British monarch as NZ's head of state, appointment of the Governor General by the British Monarch and the symbolism of the Union Jack on the flag - all familiar to Australian republicans - to be found at www.beehive.govt.nz (search under Helen Clark/November 2004). Around 40 percent of New Zealanders are believed to support election of the head of state. The Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand (which supports direct or indirect election of the head of state) is following the progress of the constitutional inquiry on its website at www.republic.org.nz - the patron of the organisation is Keri Hulme, a writer and fisher. In June 2004, the NZ Justice Minister announced a proposal to modernise oaths sworn by MPs, Ministers, new citizens etc.

• 6 November: The fifth anniversary of the Republic referendum - and so republicans move on, prepared for success and still passionate to achieve an Australian Republic with an Australian President.

• 25 October: Liberal Cabinet Minister and determined life-long republican, Amanda Vanstone had a new take on an old theme at an address given at Burgmann College at the Australian National University. Speaking about the Queen, she said: "If you love this woman, then set her free", a message for all non-republicans to take to heart.

• 7 October: Dr Germaine Greer, discusses the concept of Australia becoming an Aboriginal republic at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. She added that if this now sounded a ridiculous proposition, it should be remembered that an indigenous republic in South Africa would have seemed equally inconceivable 50 years ago. Dr Greer's latest book 'Whitefella Jump Up' tells Australians to wake up and realise that Australia's identity crisis could be saved by learning understanding from our Indigenous peoples (reported by David Seale in The Canberra Times).

• 1 September: The Senate Inquiry on the Republic releases its 181 page report: "The Road to a Republic". One third of the 24 recommendations are aimed at improving community engagement in and education about constitutional matters urging the involvement of adult learning organisations and federal, state and local government. It is further recommended to use a variety of means/media to educate voters paying particular attention to ethnicity, gender and age. The report recommends that special efforts need to be made to ensure that Indigenous people are fully consulted and involved in the proposed process. Later recommendations on the process for the republic propose three compulsory votes including two non-binding ones (plebiscites). The first vote would indicate whether Australia would become a republic; if "yes", the second one would indicate voters preferred way of choosing the head of state. The next step would be a Drafting Committee, assisted by constitutional experts, to sort out the remaining issues and come up with the wording for the final referendum. The Committee's report is available at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/republic03/report/index.htm. The Committee had three female members: Senators Marise Payne (Liberal NSW), Linda Kirk (Labor, SA) and Natasha Stott-Despoja (Democrats, SA) all of whom attended the 1998 Constitutional Convention.

• 31 August: Allison Henry, ARM National Director, speaks on Perspectives on ABC's Radio National about non-binding votes (plebiscites) and how they would advance the cause of the republic by allowing everyone to participate in decision-making. Read Allison's commentary here.

• 30 August: ARM announces the result of National Council elections. There were 16 candidates - 8 women and 8 men. Three women were elected: Senator Marise Payne and Anne Henderson were re-elected and Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja was elected again after standing down at the last election. Together with Helen Millicer, the ARM State Convenor from Victoria, that makes a total of four women on the 17 member council.

• 11 August: Professor Hilary Charlesworth from the ANU was guest speaker at a WfaAR and the ARM Women's Network breakfast in Canberra. Hilary talked about her experiences in conducting community consultations on the ACT Bill of Rights and what lessons she would pass on to republicans trying to achieve greater community interest and involvement in their propositions Here is the text of her speech.

• 30 July: WfaAR provided further information to the Senate Committee about women delegates to the 1998 Constitutional Convention and on women's participation in voluntary voting for the Convention delegates in 1997. The results were surprising - in all States and Territorities the return rate of women's votes was higher than that for men; in NSW and the NT, it was significantly higher. Read this additional research here.

• 29 July: The Senate Inquiry into the Republic holds its final hearing in Canberra.  Women for an Australian Republic was invited to appear and was represented by National Convenor, Sarah Brasch.  Sarah was only the seventh and final woman of 50 witnesses to speak to the Committee.  A copy of WfaAR 's opening address to the Committee can be read here.  The Committee questioned WfaAR about reasons why women do not appear to support the republic as strongly as men do and the implications of our support for voluntary voting for head of state.  The Senators also probed women's support for voluntary voting for delegates to the last Constitutional Convention and whether a voluntary system would discourage women and disadvantaged people from voting.  WfaAR's evidence given at this hearing can be found at http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/senate/commttee/s-lc.htm

  or through http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/republic03/index.htm

• 29 June: The next public hearing conducted by the Senate Inquiry into the Republic is held in Brisbane (the Townsville and Darwin hearings have been cancelled). Although witnesses again included representatives of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy, local ARM representatives and other republicans who did not support the 1999 referendum vote such as Dr Clem Jones, former Lord Mayor of Brisbane and head of The Real Republic group, again no women will appear before the Inquiry. Transcripts and submissions are available at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/republic03/index.htm

• 31 May: After five public hearings of the Senate Inquiry into the Republic, 36 witnesses have appeared before the committee. Only six have been women. In addition to those listed in the entry for 13/14 April, Janet Holmes a Court and Clare Thompson were invited to address the committee in Perth on 18 May; Louise Houston (submission 522) appeared in Adelaide on 19 May while in Hobart on 20 May, there were no women witnesses.

• 14 May: This Country, A Reconciled Republic? a new book by Mark McKenna is launched at Manning Clark House in Canberra by Gatjil Djerrkura, from Yirrkala and former Chair of ATSIC, who also wrote the foreword. Djerrkura sadly and suddenly died at 54, a few days later.

• 13 and 14 April: the first public hearings of the Senate Inquiry into the Republic are held at Parramatta and Melbourne. Of the 21 people invited to address the inquiry on these two days, only three are women, Allison Henry, National Director of ARM; Kerry Jones, Executive Director of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy and Associate Professor Kim Rubenstein from the Law Faculty at the University of Melbourne. Read Kim's submission to the Senate Inquiry here.

• 31 March: 730 submissions from the public received by the Senate Inquiry into the Republic. They can be viewed online at http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/legcon_ctte/republic03/index.htm

• 30 March 2004: Read the Women for an Australian Republic submission to the Senate Inquiry on the Republic. The submission supports a direct election model as the most likely to be successful and promotes voluntary voting and restricted public funding for selection as means of reducing the political mandate of an elected president and the interest in the job by political parties. A purely ceremonial head of state is proposed which could just as easily be a woman as a man. Moderate constitutional change is promoted to bring about a republic, by means of Constitutional Conventions (at least 50% of fully elected delegates to be women), that will have the confidence of and be easily understood by voters. Simple and practical approaches to establishing a republic are proposed. Click here.

• mid December 2003: new Labor leader, Mark Latham, announces that he will put the republic back on the political agenda if Labor wins office in 2004. Two non-binding votes and a referendum are proposed in the first three-year term realising the republic by 2007.

• 18 November: The NSW Women's Forum of the Australian Republican Movement presents "Women and the Republic", a lunch and panel discussion hosted by Lisa Forrest, author, broadcaster and Olympian. Speakers were Marise Payne (NSW Liberal Senator and National Committee member) whose theme was that it was no longer appropriate to have a British monarch as head of state and discriminatory that only a very small number of people were qualified to become the British monarch; Anne Henderson (Deputy Director of the Sydney Institute and ARM Deputy Chair) who wanted her grandchildren to be able to become head of state; Anna York (NSW President of the National Union of Students) stating that the views of young people on the republic should to be taken seriously and Sarah Maddison (national media spokesperson for WEL and lecturer in Australian Politics at the University of Sydney) who argued that the republic is not a women's issue but that women want a say and to participate in this important national political debate.

• 30 September: The Senate Inquiry into the Republic has not yet called for public submissions. An issues paper is being developed to facilitate submissions. For further details check the website at www.aph.gov.au/senate_legal . Public hearings will take place early next year. In the meantime, letters of support for the inquiry can be sent to Committee members: Senators Nick Bolkus, Marise Payne, Linda Kirk, Natasha Stott Despoja, Ursula Stephens and Nick Scullion. Email to: senator.last name@aph.gov.au

• 19 August: A wide-ranging interview on the republic and how it will benefit women is given by Women for An Australian Republic's Sarah Brasch, for broadcast on national community radio. The discussion touches on the large number of issues which have arisen this year about the republic and how Australia's head of state is chosen. Also covered were the appointment of prominent republic supporter, Richard Butler, as Governor of Tasmania, the controversial content of speeches made by the new Governor-General and the increasingly presidential role played by the current Prime Minister.

• 24 July: At the Jessie Street National Women's Library in Sydney, University of Wollongong academic, Jane Innes, argues that by most criteria Australia is already a republic and poses the question: how and when will we manage to transcend the last fragment of our colonial past? Her paper features interviews with five prominent academics, lawyers and leaders of the labour movement - including Professor Elaine Thompson of the University of New South Wales - talking about the reasons for the loss of the 1999 referendum and how the community currently views the republic. Click here to read her paper.

• 21 July: Allison Henry of Sydney is appointed the National Director of the Australian Republican Movement, the first woman to hold the post. Allison's background is in law and international relations. She has mostly recently been the Convenor of ARM in New South Wales after having been involved with the ARM since 1995. Allison states that her priority is "to continue to rebuild the ARM so that the organisation is ready for a plebiscite regarding Australia's Head of State" and she is expected to work closely in building grassroots support for the republic.

• 18 July - Terms of reference for the Senate Inquiry into the Republic are announced. Please note that the Committee has not yet called for public submissions - further updates will be provided on this website as they come to hand.

• 9 July: The Australian Labor Party will conduct a postal ballot in October to elect its next president and two vice-presidents. The ALP has 45,000 members nationally who can participate in the first election for senior office holders (reported by Mike Steketee in The Australian).

• 4 July: Dr Pat O'Shane describes the Australian constitution as "flawed and grossly inappropriate".  She said that our system of government is not defined and that this is useful to politicians who manipulate people by keeping them ignorant about the constitution. She also said that "the way the constitution came into being was a denial of democracy" and went on to question whether Australia actually is a democracy (reported on ABC News Online www.abc.net.au ). Pat O'Shane is a magistrate in New South Wales, the chancellor of the University of New England, an indigenous activist and feminist and was a leader in the Yes and More campaign before the 1999 referendum.

• 17 June: The Australian Democrats (spokesperson on the republic: Senator Natasha Stott Despoja) and the Australian Labor Party announce they will establish a Senate Inquiry to examine the best way for Australia to become a republic. The Inquiry will seek community feedback and give people the opportunity to put forward their preferred model for the republic. Read the full text of the media release here.

• 8 June: The Australian Republican Movement launches six versions of a preamble to a republican constitution by Australian authors - three are by women: Delia Falconer, Dorothy Porter and Leah Purcell. Not one of the six affirms and states "the equality of women and men" which WfaAR believes is a serious omission although each of texts is commendable either for its poetry and imagination or for the beauty of its expression and evocation. (Other preambles were created by novelists: James Bradley, Peter Carey and Richard Flanagan).

• 27 May: The Sydney Morning Herald interviews 50 "prominent" people, 14 of whom are women (click here), and asks them how the Governor-General should be chosen and their choice for the job. Women nominated were Lowitja O'Donoghue (former chair of ATSIC); Mary Gaudron (recently retired High Court judge); Dawn Fraser (former Olympic champion swimmer); Marie Bashir (Governor of NSW); Elizabeth Evatt (former chief judge of the Family Court and UN adviser); Professor Fiona Stanley (child health researcher and social commentator from WA, Australian of the Year 2003); Jocelyn Newman (former Minister in the current federal government). Poet, Les Murray, comments that he "wouldn't wish the job on anyone."

• 26 May: Speculation starts about who will be appointed the next Governor-General and how the Prime Minister should go about deciding who is to fill the job by using a broader selection and vetting process involving consultation with other people. There were calls for a woman to be appointed to the job to aid national healing after the Hollingworth appointment. However, there not many suggestions in the national media about who a suitable female Governor-General might be. Most of the names were recycled from the lead-up to the 2001 appointment of Dr Hollingworth including Jocelyn Newman, Lowitja O'Donoghue, Margaret Jackson and Fiona Stanley. The only known criterion applied by the Prime Minister is that the appointee should be a supporter of the monarchy, which narrows the field.

  WfaAR considers that it is inappropriate to automatically turn to women to fill high public office when there is a crisis or if the position is undesirable and/or tainted. Women should be appointed to such jobs without qualification and in any circumstances. WfaAR notes that male appointee, Sir Zelman Cowen, was well able to carry out the role of rebuilding the office of Governor-General after the controversy surrounding his predecessor, Sir John Kerr, and the divisiveness that followed in the 1970s.

• 25 May: Governor-General resigns.

• 21 May: Northern Territory Chief Minister, Clare Martin, announces another referendum on statehood. This will be preceded by a constitutional convention to which, this time, all delegates will be elected.

• 21 May: Dame Edna Everage, confidante of Queen Elizabeth and republican, proposes herself as the best person to take over as Governor-General (reported in Maxine McKew's weekly column in The Bulletin).

• 17 May: With the Governor-General having stepped aside to fight a charge of rape against him (subsequently dropped) and considering legal action to clear his name resulting from the adverse findings of an Anglican Church inquiry into the handling of child sex abuse cases while he was Archbishop of Brisbane, women saw the irony of the situation as reflected in two letters to The Canberra Times: one demanded decisive action by the Prime Minister and improved selection processes for the job; the other equated "overcrowding" at the vice-regal residence at Yarralumla with a reality TV program where the viewers vote on which person to evict from a house. Read their letters here.

• May 2003: The Governor General is embroiled in further controversy about his actions as a former archbishop of the Anglican church (see News Update of 28 February 2002 below). This again highlights issues around the method of appointing the Queen’s representative in Australia (appointed solely on the recommendation of the Prime Minister). With renewed calls for Dr Hollingworth’s resignation, public comment has focussed on the need for the office of Governor-General to remain clear of uncertainty about the occupant and for the job to be more accountable to the Australian people.

• 1 May 2003: The Victorian Government announces that it will advertise the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for the first time – previously, chief justices were appointed on the advice of the retiring incumbent to the Government of the day.

• April  2003: Dr Helen Irving, author, lecturer in law at the University of Sydney and who has written extensively on the constitutional aspects of an Australian republic, is named by the Republican Clubs of Australia as Republican of the Year.

• March 2003: Quentin Bryce, feminist lawyer, former Sex Discrimination Commissioner and monarchist, was announced as the next Governor (Queen’s representative) of Queensland. Debate about the appointment took place in the Queensland parliament  -  a first - after the appointment was confirmed by the Queen.

• 16 - 17 November 2002: A conference on Australia’s Constitutional Future was held in Brisbane and topics addressed included the republic and the Head of State. There were only a small number of women speakers: Dr Linda Burney of Sydney (now a member of the NSW parliament and indigenous activist); Senator Amanda Vanstone from South Australia; Ms Jenny Macklin of Victoria, Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition and Dr Helen Irving. The conference papers are available at www.gu.edu.au/conference/acf2002.

• 15 November 2002: The Australian published the results of a Newspoll which showed momentum for direct election of the President was growing. The survey of 1200 people revealed that 51% were in favour of Australia becoming a republic (46% of women compared with 57% of men) and 46% wanted direct election (42% of women compared with 51% of men). 80% of those polled thought that another referendum on the republic should be held within five years.

• 22 October 2002: Senator Amanda Vanstone in a speech to an ARM dinner in Canberra told republicans that they need to engage at grassroots and work in concert with local representatives to convince politicians at all levels that the republic is an issue that people want pursued. She also cautioned them against alientating their supporters who may be seeking minimal changes to implement a republic.

• 11 -13 June 2002: Five papers on the republic and related topics were delivered at the Women's Constitutional Convention 2002, Trust the Women: the Next One Hundred Years, commemorating 100 years of the women's vote and the 40th anniversary of all indigenous women getting the vote held in Canberra. Topics included: Is the Republic a Women's Issue?; Women Restarting the Republic Debate and Selection Processes For the Head of State; and the Politics of the Preamble. Papers are available at www.wcc2002.asn.au

• 28 February 2002: As controversy swirls around the office of Governor-General, there is renewed interest in the republic, the method of appointing the Head of State and the type of person who is suitable for the job. Some women have written letters to the newspapers on this issue and the need to have more women in prominent public positions, read two of them here.

• 15 December 2001: There was controversy about the Conference Follow-up Group which was formed to take forward the outcome of the convention called the Royal Hotel Resolution. (Click here for the Resolution). The 11 member group contained only one woman who was included because she was Deputy Chair of the Convention. This issue has not been resolved despite representations from concerned republican women. The first meeting of the Follow-up Group which is dominated by male members of the establishment eg retired High Court judges, the proponents of the proposals etc, was in Melbourne on 22 February 2002. ARM wrote to the Corowa Conference chair about the lack of women on the Enabling Committee which is following up the conference resolution.

• 10 December: Anne Barber from WEL Sydney, co-author of the WEL/WIP proposal which was not considered by the convention, offers her impressions of the Corowa gathering.

• 7 December: The Australian published a post-Corowa article by Professor Greg Craven of Perth who proposed one of the Corowa models but who revealed himself at the convention as being opposed to direct election. Jenny Katauskas and Louise Clegg, both from Sydney and members of ARM, responded. Read their letters to the editor.

• 3 December: The Australian features two women who attended the Corowa Conference. Denva Poyntz, 16 from Moama near Echuca (Vic) told the conference that no one was asking the next generation what they want. She said that no one should assume that young people were not interested. She favoured the Craven proposal because it was asking what people wanted, not telling them what to do. Also pictured was Judith Brooks, a teacher from Barwon Heads near Geelong. She told the conference "People don't go to the supermarket and say "By God, I want a republic. But people do want an Australian head of state and they want leadership." Judith was also reported as saying that she was a former member of ARM who had left because she was disgusted with the headkicking of Malcolm Turnbull and the way that ARM thought they owned the republic. She thinks that ARM has changed but questions how much. "The way forward for the republic will be when the people stop being afraid of the politicians, and the politicians stop being afraid of the people, when the issue becomes one of unifying the nation and not dividing the nation, and when it becomes something we all move together on in a bipartisan manner. There has to be an exchange of trust." (Quoted from an article by Mike Steketee)

• 1-2 December: People's Conference at Corowa, on the Murray River in southern New South Wales and site of the 1893 Corowa Conference, the first of the conventions leading up to Federation. The purpose of the 2001 Corowa People's Conference was to explore and harness the opinions of Australians to resolve the Head of State issue and put in place a process which will ensure an Australian in the top job, for example through a series of referendums, plebiscites, parliamentary inquiries and the like. The five proposals selected for debate by delegates addressed this issue from different perspectives and proposed different processes to achieve the common objective. Details of the proposals can be found on the Corowa website at www.corowaconference.com.au and click on Conference.

About a third of the 420 delegates to Corowa were women. In the main, delegates came from the eastern States and the ACT with few attending from South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Special representations had to be made to the conference organisers to ensure that women got equal time to speak and this issue erupted on the floor of the conference on the second day. All the women who spoke in the formal sessions about the five proposals were persuasive, fluent and outstanding in the breadth of their arguments and experience with the issues. There was also an exciting group of young, committed women republicans attending. Women for an Australian Republic attended and spoke during the discussion on the five proposals on Day 1 of the conference. Click on the link for the speech made by Sarah Brasch.

Photographs from the conference can be found at www.corowaconference.com.au

• 14 November: Although submitted in time, the WEL/WIP proposal for selecting the Head of State was not among those put to the vote by paid-up delegates to the Corowa conference (about half the delegates were able to vote). No explanation for this was forthcoming. The five final resolutions to be considered at Corowa were all proposed by men, mostly academic constitutional lawyers, the exception being former television journalist and business identity, Bill Peach.

• 10 November: the move to a republic loses political momentum with the return of a Liberal-National Party Government in federal election (but see also item on the Corowa Conference 1 December)

• 1 November: Women Into Politics and Women's Electoral Lobby discussion paper prepared ahead of the Corowa People's Conference about selecting a Head of State. The paper concentrates on the involvement of women in the process and ensuring that there is gender equity in all processes of change for selection of the Head of State. It recommends that each electorate elect one male and one female representative to an Assembly to Elect the Head of State; proposes selection criteria for the Head of State including a record of public service other than paid employment and promotes community education. Click here to read the full discussion paper.

• 19 October: ARM releases discussion paper on six models for Head of State. This is a short and informative read but doesn't contain any specific provisions to ensure equality of representation or in the selection processes for the President. There is a direct election model and one for an American-style President. Link is www.republic.org.au/6models/index.htm

Note: These postings are provided to individual members of this group and readers of this site without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use".

Click here for News from 2001

Click here for News from 2000

Click here for News from 1999

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Last modified: 4 May 2009

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