We should not be a republic for a series of very good reasons. Firstly I note that the voyages of Captain Cook have been said to be of the same ilk as is the American Moon Mission, this I dispute entirely.
The Moon Mission was years in the planning, it was checked and rechecked until every possible element of human error was taken out of the equation and it was state of the art technology that took those astronauts to the moon, where as Cook was given a ship that even for its time was a tub. It had few cannon for protection, twelve, it was small and cramped and it went about eight knots at full speed, that is favourable weather conditions, so it’s cruising speed would have been somewhere near four to five knots, so the ship was slow, very slow. The moon mission was years in the planning, whereas Cook was more or less given a ship and told to go and find something. Apollo Eleven was in contact with NASA during the whole time of the mission, apart from when the landing craft left the mother ship to land on the moon, it was a time frame of around half an hour, whereas Cook lost contact with England as soon as he left port. Furthermore the knowledge of how to navigate the southern oceans wasn’t completely in place, thus the whole crew relied very heavily on Cook’s ability to navigate the ship safely through uncharted waters. Cook took twenty-two months to get to this country, granted he spent six months mapping New Zealand, but it was still an awfully long time to be at sea, the moon mission on the other hand took a whole team of computer experts to navigate that craft to the moon and it took far less time for the whole mission to be complete than it did for Cook to just get to this country. When thinking on the recent Tsunamis’ one realises the dour position Cook was in for that entire voyage, then of course he had four attempts at trying to round the cape, one of the most treacherous strips of ocean in the world, almost anything could have gone wrong, Cook literally set off on a wing and a prayer. Cook made three such voyages, on the first the ship was almost lost when being torn apart by the Great Barrier Reef, on the second voyage Cook came down with some sort of stomach bug, which he nursed himself through manfully, on the third voyage he was to lose his life by being clubbed and stoned to death and then cannibalised. I hail the moon mission for what it is, it is the greatest technological achievement in history and I hail it as a triumph as that, but the greatest feat of discovery and exploration is Cooks and Cooks alone. It is pretty safe to say that he, being an Englishman, would have believed what he was doing was for God, King and Country, he certainly wouldn’t have thought, ‘Gee whiz I hope one day this place becomes a republic’, so too his thoughts for New Zealand would have been for her to stay with the crown. He is after Christ arguably the bravest man in history, even if he isn’t he has to at least be in amongst the handful of people that rate as the bravest men in history, but with that I challenge anyone to come up with someone else, in fact I defy them!
Our soldiers who fought in the 1st and 2nd World Wars fought bravely and honourably for this country, but I’d say eighty to ninety per cent of them went to war with the belief that what they were doing was for King and Country, which should not be forgotten. Many died horrible deaths, like in the 1st War when being gassed by mustard gas and seeing their skin blister and peel away, or having their lungs fill with gas and burn their insides as they struggle to breath, or turning to encourage their mates to hurry along as they storm the beach, only to see his head explode as bullets rip through him. Or in the 2nd World War where an Australian soldier is dying in Changi Prison from disease and starvation, being infested with malaria, or dysentery, or having horrid tropical ulcers eating away at their flesh, yet not even having the medication to make their deaths that bit more pleasant, then of course these soldiers were faced with ongoing psychological and physical problems if they survived the wars once they came out of the armed forces, you cannot honour these men if you disregard what they believed, fought and died for, it’s impossible, because what they fought for, the whole package was honourable. To say thanks very much for a freedom, but we don’t want your beliefs, no matter their nobility is a slap in the face for those men that fought and died for this country, they deserve better!
Aboriginals, their effort in surviving this land as long as they have is enormous, they even managed to rudimentarily farm, as seen on a program on the ABC late in 2007, but at the time of this country’s discovery, that’s exactly what many European nations were doing, indulging in discovery and exploration, so this place was going to be found, it was simply a question of whom. The aboriginal people should be thankful it was the British, as they had the best track record when it came to colonising a country with the least amount of disruption to the native population. One only has to think of what the Spanish Conquistadors did to the native population in South America to acknowledge this, it all could have been much worse for the aboriginal people, so through the drugs, the petrol sniffing, the alcohol, the rape, things that sadly would have happened no matter who was the colonising country, the concession to allow a figure head monarch to preside over our country should be made, she has no political power here anyway. But there have been some very good things come out of colonisation, like the many role models in the aboriginal community, such as Michael Long, David Gulpilil, Yvonne Cawley, Cathy Freeman, Ernie Dingo, the list could be much, much longer. We have begun to have aboriginal heath improve and their life span is basically on the rise, yes there are still problems, but gradually they are being addressed. But I do say this about the aboriginal people, if the greatest feat of discovery and exploration can be said to be Cook’s voyages and the greatest feat of technology can be said to be the moon mission, then the greatest feat of survival has to go to the aboriginal people as a whole, it is a credit to their ingenuity that they survived this land as long as they did, as they arrived in the most inhospitable land possible and flourished.
Migrants: I have no trouble with people coming here from far and wide, I encourage them to bring their culture with them, it can only enhance ours, but for heaven’s sake respect what is in place already, just as I would have to respect another country’s culture should I venture to live there.
If we become a republic we would turn our backs on arguably the second bravest man in history and we would turn our backs on our diggers of World War One and World War Two and we would turn our backs on the fact we have not had a revolution, something that usually goes with becoming a republic and with that would see a President in this country without the respect and regard as does the President in the USA enjoy, it would be a hollow gesture, built on nothing.
I call on my fellow Australians to reject this policy and I compel the Labor Party to erase this, selfish, shallow, ignoble, dishonouring, vandalic and expedient policy from their mandate, it is wrong, black and white it is wrong! The corner stone of this country is not the first fleet, the corner stone of this country is not federation, the corner stone of this country is simply the fact that this land was found and claimed!
The republic case is tissue thin against what can be brought forward for the crown, I mean please, ‘We want a republic because the Queen doesn’t represent us.’ That is so lame compared to the argument for the crown, it’s weak, it lacks substance, to put it bluntly it’s gutless, as is the policy it so pathetically attempts to support.
As for this present Queen, look at how hard she has worked! She has gone from country, to country, to country, then back again and back again some more, she has met dignitary after dignitary, she has made speech after speech after speech, she has opened this that and the other, left right and centre and there has to be times when she was bored to tears, yet she has maintained her interest and stayed alert through 99.99 per cent of what she has been called to do, the woman is a Trojan! She did not want the job she has been given and for much of her youth she would have believed that she most likely would not have had to do it. But she has embraced it and worked herself into the dust! Her and her family have worked and worked very hard, yes her offspring have had personal problems, most people do, just because you are royalty doesn’t mean you are immune to such things, but the fact that they have worked hard cannot be ignored. Still her efforts alone have more than earned the loyalty of this country to the crown.
England has already made concessions to us, she readily allowed federation, she agreed to our own Governor-General, she acquiesced to our want for our own national anthem, she helped organise and authorise our own coat of arms, she agreed to our own flag, surely it is time to give back, or are we going to continually take?
If we become a republic and I am the only person to vote against it, because that I’ll surely do, then I’ll be the only person in this country that can truly hold my head up high, because I will be the only person in this country who is right.
The content of this argument can easily be adapted and applied to New Zealand, as they too have a history that indicates loyalty to the crown.
The truth of us becoming a republic would see us become the laughing stock of the world, as we would easily be accused of being the country with no principles and the country that couldn’t work out our own history when it is only 240 years old if one takes it from when the written history of this country began, in short if we value our history then a republic should not be, period!
