Uniya Newsletter: Autumn 1995, p 4.

                   Will The Republic Mean More Jobs?
                                   
(Social economist, Paul Smyth is a Senior Researcher at Uniya.)

   Discussion about Australia becoming a republic, is more than a
   debate about flags and heads of State. It is an opportunity for
   social change.
   
DEBATE about the Republic is often dismissed as a political diversion
from fundamental issues like unemployment. My own reflections after
the Uniya seminar An Australian Republic: Participation and
Citizenship suggest that restoration of the right to work may well
depend on us becoming a truly Australian republic.

  At the recent launch of ACOSS's Commission on Work, Emeritus
Professor of Economics John Neville indicated his commitment to full
employment. Describing the alternative prospect under current economic
policy - a divided, two-tier society - as a "hell on earth", Neville
underscored the new pluralism in economic policy. Less and less do we
hear from economists that high unemployment is "natural". More and
more do we hear that full employment is a perfectly feasible policy
option, given the political will. The problem is that the political
will is not there. Herein lies the relevance of the republic.

  In 1993 Fr David Cappo and Chris Carlile wrote of the republic as a
"unique window of opportunity... producing a political climate open to
considering important social questions with the possibility of
reformulating the very foundations of our democratic system and
forging a new vision for Australian society".

  To date, this window has barely opened. Popular discussion rarely
moves beyond the flag and the head of state, while academic writing is
largely confined to constitutional, historical and cultural matters.
The bread-and-butter implications for economic and social policy
remain untouched. Hence the yawning popular indifference to talk of a
republic.

  Some so-called "minimalists" want to keep the debate constrained in
this way. As Roy Green said at the Uniya seminar, when the republic
comes some will want "business as usual" but "behind a new shop
front". My expectation is that the window will open.

  At the Uniya seminar Professor Graham Maddox and Elaine Thompson
showed that there is no one form of the republic. Republics take
different forms in different national contexts with vastly different
public policy consequences. They emphasised that our republican
tradition differs markedly from the United States one and has the
distinctive stamp of our "Fair Go egalitarianism".

  For Thompson, "the core of Australian democracy was the commitment
to equality, put into practice through the idea of a fair go.
Australia based its democracy around this egalitarian notion and it
was central to what it was to be Australian". An Australian republic
would be rooted in this vision of what she calls the "equality
community". It would make our political institutions even more
democratic and commit us to making the "fair go" a social and economic
reality for all Australian citizens.

  Maddox showed how a US constitution that checked egalitarianism and
privatised politics drew much of its inspiration from Calvinist
doctrines concerning the corruption of the masses. By contrast,
Australian republicanism drew on British protestant traditions of the
"commonwealth", traditions that prize "a sense of communal welfare".
Add the preeminent influence of the largely Catholic Irish in the
development of the distinctively Australian character and we have a
great deal of historical momentum moving today's Churches to help open
up the republican debate.

  How could the Churches proceed? Fr Cappo and Chris Carlile suggest
that enactment of a Bill of Social Rights should be a part of the
transition to a republic. We could, for example, seek to enshrine the
right to work.

  At the Uniya seminar Sue Goodwin showed that the experience of
formalising social rights has been mixed. She emphasised the
importance of widespread community participation in developing
"statements of aspirations" before any Bill of Rights reaches written
form - if indeed that is thought a desirable goal. Stimulating
community participation and developing statements of aspirations is
one way for the churches to assist in opening the "window of
opportunity" that the republic presents.

  Will the republic mean more jobs? The new pluralism in Australian
economic thought indicaties that full employment is fundamentally a
matter of political will. The transition to a republic will be a
defining moment in terms of our political identity. Minimalism would
have no effect on the unemployed, but to sanction their
marginalisation as in the past two decades. A Fair Go Republic would
ensure for all Australians the right to work.