On Wednesday, the Opposition pledged that, if elected, a Labor government would hold a plebiscite to ask Australians whether or not the nation should become a republic.
Expected to cost up to $160 million, the question to be put forward in the proposed vote would be, ‘do you support an Australian republic with an Australian head of state?’
The Hon Matt Thistlethwaite MP, Labor’s spokesperson for the issue, stated that ‘we’re not saying it’s the most important issue but we are saying that if we are elected at the next election, it’s one of the issues that Labor will attempt to deal with during our first term’.
Shadow Minister for Defence, the Hon Richard Marles MP, similarly commented that ‘it’s not as present an issue for people as things like health and education, and of course they will be the priorities of any incoming Labor government… but it’s also really important that we are developing our national institutions along the way’.
The proposed plebiscite has been met with criticism from those campaigning for the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians.
President of the Northern Territory Trades and Labour Council, Mr Thomas Mayor said that a republic vote should not be the constitutional priority, and that the country must ‘achieve reconciliation first… that is the most important constitutional reform right now’.
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