Opinion: Australia can’t afford to look like Britain’s Asia outpost

Images: River McCrossen, Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

Australia has been a sovereign nation for over 120 years, we have created our own education, welfare and health systems to take care of our citizens. We have a society which values mutliculturalism, fairness and honest work and we should be able to have one of our own as our leader.

Since federation, Australia has been a constitutional monarchy, meaning we are a democratic society with a royal head of state, albeit with limited powers. In other words, we elect our own but have a liking for those who cannot be elected. This is not sustainable.

An Australia which seeks to be multicultural, hard-working and independent cannot limp around the international stage with a head of state that’s not only extremely outdated, but a head of state which has not one shred of public accountability.

How will the rising African continent view a nation which contained some of the worst cases of colonialism and refuses to cut the umbilical cord of history. Nations which dealt and continue to deal with the blowbacks from European colonialism will not be generous to an Australia which refuses to accept that it’s symbols, not just its policies, must progress.

Symbols speak to the values of our country. Refusing progress risks Australia sliding back in innovation, institutional independence and global standing.

*Ben Hancock is the President of the UOW Australian Republic Club