Are your local candidates republican?
One of the more curious aspects of voting patterns in the 1999 republican referendum was the disparity between the views of many parliamentarians and the electorates they represented.
While monarchists have made much of the fact that staunch republican Mark Latham’s electorate, Werriwa, voted NO in 1999, less has been said about ardent monarchists John Howard and Tony Abbott representing the YES-voting republics of Bennelong and Warringah respectively.
We at the Australian Republican Movement believe that Australian voters should be aware of their local candidate’s personal – rather than their party’s – opinion on the republican issue, and whether their prospective representatives support another referendum on the republic before 2010.
So while we are not supporting any particular candidates or parties in this election campaign, we have approached candidates, and continuing Senators, to ascertain their views on whether Australia should become a republic with an Australian head of state, and when.
Candidate’s responses are being published on our website as they are received.
Check them out at Federal election 2004.
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