details = The Captive Republic: A history of republicanism in Australia 1788-1996
By Mark McKenna
Cambridge University Press, 1996
334 pp., $29.95(pb), $90.00(hb)
Review by Alex Bainbridge
For many people, the republic debate is simply a bore — a diversion from the real issues facing society (like unemployment and rampant economic rationalism). Keating's republic certainly didn't sound very exciting — replacing a useless, foreign parasite as head of state with a useless, home-grown one.
On the other hand, after witnessing the gushing pro-monarchism of certain conservative leaders (like John Howard) in the early stages of the debate, it is hard not to wonder if perhaps there isn't something progressive about it after all.
If anybody out there is interested in the impending possible change to an Australian republic, The Captive Republic might be of some use — if you read between the lines, that is. Its strength lies in the detailed history it provides rather than in its penetrating analysis of the issues.
As McKenna points out, the idea of an Australian republic has existed ever since the original invasion of Australia by the "First Fleet". However, for much of that time, the threat of separation from Britain has been simply that — a threat, the aim of which was to win some minor concession or other from the colonial office in London. There has been little in the way of organising to achieve it.
John Dunmore Lang led a charge for republicanism and independence from Britain in the 1850s and was elected to public office in NSW on a republican program. This reached its height in the decade before "responsible government" was granted by Britain, fuelled by the various grievances of the colonists (like land availability and transportation of convicts).
Lang was committed to the principles of the British constitution and considered a republic in Australia the best way to achieve that. There was, however, a radical aspect to Lang's republicanism — he linked it to wide-ranging democratic reform in Australia.
Thus the granting of responsible government significantly undercut Lang's movement. It also meant a significant change in the character of the republican movement — whose repercussions are still being felt. The more that a domestic Australian elite wielded real control over the institutions of the Australian state — a product of the gradual democratisation that followed responsible government in 1856 — the less republicanism had any meaningful democratic content.
Since then, as McKenna notes, the debate has shifted to "a frequently shallow and superficial fixation with the public rituals of monarchy (that is, flag, anthem, monarch)".
This is not to say that radicals since then have not flown a republican flag. However, in these cases republicanism has tended to be one of many planks in a more or less socialist platform than a program in itself. Thus William Lane's warning that "a republic would not be a panacea and that Australians had to be just as careful of monopolists in a republic as under a monarchy".
However, even Lane (like Henry Lawson) was caught by the reactionary trap that has snared many a progressive republican — nationalism and racism. While nationalism has been a consistent thread running through the politics of the Australian labour movement, it hasn't been a positive experience.
Australian society is crying out for social justice and democratic reform. We also have no need for a British monarch as head of state. But republicanism separated from the struggle for social reform is at best irrelevant (the republicanism of much of the ALP left, for instance). At its worst (for example, Keating's republic), it is a reactionary attempt to divert people's attention from injustice and oppression with nationalism.
McKenna's book is comprehensive and readable. It is billed as the first major study of republicanism in this country.
While the book is not written from the standpoint of the policy needs of the left, we can take notes from progressive republicans of the past. Purged of its racism, Lane's vision still has relevance today: "For Lane, a republic was nothing if it did not include nationalisation of the land, women's rights, electoral reform and free education."