The Party which provides all Australians access to our government.

Australia has never had any interest whatsoever in the US Presidential system and nor do we at The Australian Republican Party. Wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. It's not that US democracy has become a gerrymandered, voter suppressed dysfunctional corrupt circus sold to the highest bidder run by ... what runs it ... it's the Presidency itself. Too much un-necessary self defeating government. So no absolutely not any kind of US or French style Presidency we've got enough politicians in Australia. And if this is your first experience with a formal Australian Republican footprint ... at no time in Australian history has a US styled republic ever been supported here. Not by the Irish rebellions of the first colonies not by the first Australians out of blacks and convicts ... the Currency Lads and Lasses the untouchable second class citizens in their own country, not the miners rebellions of the gold rush not the Federalists of 1901 not the post imperial 1920s or the post war Curtin redirection to the US not Hawke not Keating not the Turnbull era Republicans or any since NONE. Ever. Zero. Australian republicans have, historically and today, always thought of a US style Republic in Australia as 18th century solution to the wrong question. Too much government. Outdated administrative focus. Self defeating. The House of Reps runs government. Full stop.

On the republican issue the Australian Republican Party is, like the vast majority of voters in every state, constitutionally conservative direct electionist. The people want to elect their head of state but are largely uninterested in wholesale changes to our British parliamentary government. It's the pointless Imperial nonsense, the fake Imperial dressing up box, that grates. Represents nothing Australian. Supports not one Australian export market. Tells no Australian stories. Projects not one iota of the stunning Brand Australia we have. Unifies nothing. Backs nothing. Projects nothing Australian. Has no impact on the national interest. No connection with the people or the nation. But Republicans need to understand no-one is listening. No-one. Not even even the Republican friendly ALP. The Republican Party has been founded to do something about that. That's the job. Not models. You've got a model join the party we'll post it and may the best model win in the court of public opinion. We are not the ARM. We are not interested in republican political turf wars. We are not a narrow constitutional academic exercise. If the Republic is to be re-energised we need to broaden our footprint. We have to connect the republic with issues that matter to people across a wide spectrum of Australian audiences outside the usual suspects. No good waiting for the ARM or the Labor Party.

We have to work with every major party in NSW and Australia. But we must understand no-one is listening to Republicans. We are a protest movement shouting from the sidelines waiting for the Royals to mess up ... for this anniversary or that to get any traction. A mention in the papers which never lasts. We have to get in the fight. That means winning seats which results in money, resources and footprint. Influence. And because we are not party political ... because we want to work with Labor and Liberals and One Nation and Greens and Nationals and shooters and fishers, Muslims and Jews and Christians and Buddhists ... because we are NOT the branch of the Labor Party many Australians believe Republicans are ... we can offer much for not much in return. Do the work. Twist the arms. Work with people. Be seen and be heard.

If we want voters focussed on us ... have their ear and their support then we have to be focussed on them. That means having a view on housing and the cost of living. We don't need an argument with other parties there is broad agreement on what must be done if not how. Rising housing costs are unsustainable. 75,000 DAs have approval in NSW where no work has started according to the chairman of WSROC. Red tape is self perpetuating. Corruption in the building industry is costing home buyers hundreds of millions of dollars if not more every year. We support quality developers but the NSW government is not there to make mates rich. Blocks of flats in Woollahra are nice but who can afford a flat in Woollahra? It's density and infrastructure on the plains of greater south west and western Sydney where it matters. The public want to see greater efforts in public housing ... particularly for critical service providers. They want greater assistance to first home buyers and they want immigration curtailed. If we want to update Australia then she has to know we've got her back on the things that matter. 

The arts and media community are the most powerful supporters of republicanism in Australia. We must give them something in return. Long term republican focus on narrow constitutional academia is of no interest to people. None. People. Not politicians. Not constitutional lawyers. People. On arts and media ... Steven Spielberg's ET made more money in the year of its release than Hyundai. It's a potentially massive industry employing thousands of well educated, committed professionals that is cowering under a singular lack of commitment to telling Australian stories. What are we ... we Republicans? Is it not about telling Australian stories that matter, that are relevant to who we are. That mean something to Australians ... that connect with them. Is that not what it's really all about. If we want the A listers and we do ... if we want the story telling corporations on board and we do ... if we want the sculptors the painters the singers and dancers and actors the writers the influencers the film makers the journalists the talking heads ... and we do ... then we have to be in the fight for them. Enough asking people to sign petitions on narrow constitutional issues. We must get behind and power up, barrack for lobby for twist arms for make noise for get in politicians' faces for ... telling Australian stories that matter to the people and aggressively, comprehensively, energetically, arduously and persistently backing the story telling industries of Australia. As Republicans there is nothing more important to our cause. 

Renewables are coming ... if badly managed. Power companies don't want to invest in coal because it's labour intensive and the turbines have to be fed every day. We know this. Everyone does. Miners' wages, their health and safety, the plant the rail the litres of diesel burned per tonne of coal at the furnace ... vs solar and wind power generation which requires comparatively little maintenance. You can virtually set up a solar plant and walk away you can't do that with a coal fired power station. It's the lack of proper planning, implementation and consultation we intend to tackle head on. If Rolls Royce want to turn up with a small portable safe nuclear plant that's fine we don't see any. On trade and industry ... native forest logging in NSW is throwing good money after bad. Shutting the industry quickly will face practical short term problems. But we must move forestry to the north of the continent. 1.5 metres of rain falls on 1.5 million square kilometres during the north's wet season every year ... all to no end but to bog Outback Truckers. We could over time have one of the most powerful logging industries on Earth in the north ... mahogany, ebony, rose wood the finest hard woods, local cypress pine, cedar and teak ... all close to massive markets. There are win-wins to be had for all ... for the forestry industry and the native forest protectionists. And the Koori. Humans affect the climate. We have been clearing Earth's forests for 3000 years. It's not whether we have an impact on climate but what climate we want and how we get it. Planetary effects are in our hands. We must tree the north with massive renewable commercial forests and protect the native forests in the south of the continent.

Egalitarianism is under threat in Australia. The parents of kids at The Kings School pay taxes too. Degrading our best schools is a mug's game it's Trump. But it does not wash that you can have one Kings School and hundreds of paupers schools in every part of the state. As an upper house party our job is oversight. Interrogation of government. Therefore our education policy must be singular, targeted and specific. We want air conditioning in every class room in NSW. Walk into any MPs office and see if it's air conditioned. Now think how concentrated on fractions and geometry the kids out in Western Sydney are when it's 38 degrees and you're in a 70s brick building or one of the 5000 plus demountables in NSW as of 2022. Ballrooms are fine. Tarmac for playing fields is not. We're creating massive divisions in Australia via education. We believe we must take a war footing funding public schools in New South Wales. We want to work with all the responsible ministers, the departments, the various Teachers Federations the P+Cs the private schools the institutions ... to wring every last penny out of the State and federal budgets and pour it into education. We know where the Republican base in Australia lies we are there. We'll work with Labor if they're on it.

No wonder kids have no interest in civics it's got nothing to do with them. MPs pledging allegiance to a king ... not their people ... is offensive because if our politicians start their careers with a lie, either traitors to themselves or to their oath, then when exactly does the bullshit end? Those kids are completely disenfranchised from the nation by that stuff. We follow Tom Keneally's lead on the King. We're not interested in playing the man. But those youngsters cant have faith in the integrity of the structures or processes we want them to care about ... when those structures ask elected officials to pledge allegiance to one thing while they're busily being something else. In full view. We've institutionalised lies in Australia. We dress the head of state in foreign aristocratic robes that disenfranchise people, makes them subject to a foreign family not citizens. There is no unity there. There is nothing for people to invest in. No nation that matters to them or they matter to. The Australian nation has to belong to us all and be seen to. We must invest in the real.

Tom is not a member of the Republican Party nor a registered supporter. Doesn't know the first thing about us wouldn't know us from a bar of soap. But we know him. His conscience, his deeply felt moral visions and values, his profound commitment to telling Australian stories in the Australian vernacular, his courage and sometimes ruthless integrity, his perception and most of all his endless striving for the republic through every failure ... a living embodiment of Samuel Becket's "fail, fail again fail better" ... he's never given up. Even today aged 90 he's still at it. This is Tom's biggest influence on us. We don't stop. We never give up. There will be a Republic. The Imperial settings are a dangerous divisive lie at the heart of our national life. Australia must take responsibility for her stories her values and her future. Tom is not alone there are huge rafts of Australian life that can relate his to commitment. We share that commitment.

Australia said no to the separatist movement. Like Tom Brenda is not a supporter or member of the Republican Party but our position in the often divisive aboriginal cultural issue is influenced by her footprint. A stolen generation survivor and story teller ... Brenda says  "I choose to walk together" with her black and white past. As for the Republican Party's position on reconciliation and truth telling ... which frankly for Republicans everywhere is a fraught issue we're best served out of ... seek out Aunty Brenda Matthews. She's not alone. The more you look on social media the more you see these uniters popping up and taking on the dividers. From all walks of aboriginal life. Young men covered in tattoos urging people to put the spears down and walk with their brothers and sisters of all races, colours and creeds. They are the future. A powerful one. We must level up the Koori but there is no better way forward than together as Australians  

Australia is fond of its contrarians. Upenders of the norm. Our history is riddled with trouble makers tipping their caps to no Lord. Not drum beaters waving empty placards at people. We know a jailer when we see one. Larrikins. Levellers. Upending the pompous and self important. Egalitarian. Vocal. Make your own definitions but if you listen carefully to Australia there is fear we are losing, under this relentless immigration, that Australia. This is a place Republicans can make a difference ... because no-one past and present values our unique culture, mindset and place in the world like Republicans. There are vast parts of the population crying out for focus on Australian identity one might not readily regard as natural Republican allies  ... who would be if we invited them ... if we branch out and talk to Australians across the spectrum where they live not forever preaching constitution to the converted.