FED: Reith done republicans a backhanded favour

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-1999
FED: Reith done republicans a backhanded favour

By James Grubel, Chief Political Correspondent

CANBERRA, Aug 6 AAP - Peter Reith has done republicans a backhanded favour by declaring his
intention to campaign against the republic.

The Workplace Relations Minister supports a republic but only if the president is decided
by a popular election.

He wants the public to vote down the republic with a president appointed by parliament, in
the hope of later securing a republic with an elected president.

Mr Reith's decision breathed new life into a republic debate which has been mostly dormant
for the past 18 months.

But his intervention did more than just spark a renewed interest.

Mr Reith also flushed out Treasurer Peter Costello, a man many republicans have considered
a key to their chances of success at the referendum on November 6.

Mr Costello came out in support of the republic in early 1998, at the Constitutional
Convention set up by Prime Minister John Howard, but he harboured real concerns about the
presidential model to be put to the referendum.

For the past 18 months, Mr Costello has said little about whether he will throw his weight
behind the republican cause for November 6, despite quiet lobbying from senior republicans
across the political divide.

It took the public declaration of Mr Reith to drive Mr Costello into the open.

For Canberra watchers, the republic brawl between two senior cabinet ministers has been
seen as another contest between the rivals for future Liberal leadership.

In a veiled dig at Mr Reith, Mr Costello said it would be "churlish" for a republican not
to support the referendum just because a different model was being proposed.

Mr Reith hit back, saying the issue was about trusting the public and taking power from
politicians.

He said MPs would never let the public have a say over the presidential appointment.

For his part, Mr Howard is trying hard not to intervene.

Since before his election in 1996, Mr Howard has tried to diffuse the political damage the
republic could cause the coalition, by remaining one step removed from the debate.

He wants the republic to be driven by the people, not politicians, and he sees his role as
a facilitator rather than a central player.

And he sees no problem with the public sniping between the two men most widely tipped to
take his job one day.

But Mr Howard faces his own republic dilemma when parliament resumes next week.

The Prime Minister and his cabinet, divided between republicans and monarchists, will have
to decide whether to change the wording of the question to be put at the referendum, in line
with the recommendations of a bipartisan parliamentary committee.

Mr Howard is reluctant to change the current question, which makes no mention of the Queen
and which explains how a president would be appointed by a two-thirds majority of federal
parliament.

Cabinet will also have to decide on the contentious plans for a new preamble to the
Constitution, and whether to hold firm on Mr Howard's mention of "mateship" and of a land long
"inhabited" by Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.

The issues have to be resolved by late Thursday, when the legislation must be passed
through parliament to meet the legislative deadline for the referendum.

But Labor and the Australian Democrats are reserving the right to use their numbers in the
Senate to amend the republic question and the preamble.

For Opposition Leader Kim Beazley and Democrats leader Meg Lees, amendments in the Senate
risk spoiling any chance of bipartisan agreement in the run down to the referendum.

That in turn could damage the campaign for the republic and give opponents such as Mr Reith
ammunition to fire at the public about the partisan political nature of the republic push.

Any amendments would also pose a significant political risk for Mr Howard.

If he holds firm and the deadlock cannot be resolved by Thursday, he could be forced to
postpone the referendum.

That would leave him open to claims he was deliberately trying to spoil the vote.

And his three-year push to remain one step removed from the republic outcome would also be
lost.

AAP jg/wjf/br

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