Is it time for Australia to become a Republic?

[nomadpete]

54 minutes ago, old man emu said:

To squander the public revenue by pensioning off the officers of the Government on their full salaries, thus implanting in our institutions a principle of jobbery and corruption

Informative background OME

 

Especially the bit foreseeing our present system of golden handshakes

[onetrack]

The Bunyip Aristocracy has been steadily and insidiously replaced by the Corporate Aristocracy, since the start of the Oil Age. In that group we have huge levels of unelected power, unjust personal enrichment, corruption of Govt on a large scale ("lobbyists"), and a massive diversion of many nations wealth to a small and highly privileged group, all at the expense of the majority of ordinary everyday people.

[spacesailor]

Is Victoria the Only state with a crown in its flag.

How hard , is it to change just a ' Symbolic flag ' .

spacesailor

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

Is Victoria the Only state with a crown in its flag.

How hard , is it to change just a ' Symbolic flag ' .

spacesailor

Queensland and Victoria have a crown on the state flag.

[willedoo]

Reading between the lines of recent statements by Queensland government members, my guess is they are not changing the flag's crown design until there is a debate on an altogether new flag (a more representative flag, in their words). I'd say that would be some design that also has Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander symbolism. If that's the case, the defaced blue ensign design might be dropped.

 

 

[willedoo]

I recon one of the nicest looking flags in the world is the New Guinea flag. Red and black are bold colours that always go well together, and the gold birdy thing sets it off as well. The Southern Cross looks very striking with white stars on a black background.

[willedoo]

Australian flags (national and state) are twice the length as the width, standard size being 6'x3'. There's not many other countries in the world like that; most have the standard dimensions which is around 5'x3'. All those cheap Chinese made screenprints of Australian flags use the standard international 5'x3' size. That's why they look a bit odd. At first glance it looks like the stars are too close to the edge, but the problem is the flag is missing a foot of blue from the fly. I refuse to hoist those cheap imported flags. Better off paying the money for a proper one.

[facthunter]

Most People in other countries wouldn't have a clue what Southern Cross means. Are our colours Green and Gold? OUR place is two islands with a non changing shape that is recognisable. Put a Kangaroo somewhere and it won't be copied. Nev

[willedoo]

My answer to the topic question is yes; a position I have reached in the last half hour. I was originally a republican until Howard's poxy referendum, then turned born-again constitutional monarchist until a decent republic model makes an appearance. But today was the straw that broke the camel's back. No more King for me. Channel 9 this afternoon is broadcasting King Charlie's hoe-down instead of the match between the mighty Redcliffe Dolphins and the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks at Lang Park in Brisbane. It's an unforgivable sin, especially on such an important weekend for Queensland.

 

Magic Round Queensland is on with sixteen NRL teams playing at Lang Park over three days, and they put a King on the TV. When I'm listening to the match on the wireless instead of watching it on live TV, I'll be swearing an oath but it will be about Charlie, not to him. There might be a few oaths about channel 9 as well.

[rgmwa]

And so, on such consequential matters as the NRL hangs the colonial future of 1,000 years of British history . 

 

[willedoo]

19 minutes ago, rgmwa said:

And so, on such consequential matters as the NRL hangs the colonial future of 1,000 years of British history . 

 

You got it. Anyway, we don't need Charlie when we have our own King Wally, Emperor of Lang Park.

 

[red750]

You probably wouldn't have seen it on 9 even if there was no coronation. Foxtel have the contract for all matches. Money Money Money.

 

Like AFL in Melbourne, we get the races on Saturday and local VFL on Sunday on Ch 7, even if there are matches at both MCG and Marvel Stadium.

[willedoo]

You're right Peter. It's the second game out of three for the day. Free to air Channel 9 is only broadcasting the third night game each day. I should apologise to Charlie; I'll probably end up in the stocks now.

[Jerry_Atrick]

24 minutes ago, red750 said:

You probably wouldn't have seen it on 9 even if there was no coronation. Foxtel have the contract for all matches. Money Money Money.

 

Like AFL in Melbourne, we get the races on Saturday and local VFL on Sunday on Ch 7, even if there are matches at both MCG and Marvel Stadium.

The way Box Hill are going compared to Hawthorn, I will take the VFL at the moment 😉

 

I thought Johnny Howard legislated that a certain number of games (aross all codes) had to be broadcast free to air when cable came in?

 

TBH. if the amount of footy available was reduced, that would be a drawcard for my partner to return to Melbourne; she was thoroughly sick of AFL by the time we left.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[facthunter]

I haven't got anything against Charles. HE didn't decide the system but WE started as a Penal Colony, for "UNWANTED" People Nothing else.. Britain has never clened up the atomic waste and didn't pay Brtit emigrants to Here their Old age Pension.. The Queens "managers" WERE involved with the dismissal of Whitlam.  Nev

[old man emu]

20 minutes ago, facthunter said:

didn't pay Brtit emigrants to Here their Old age Pension..

Yes they did. But their system may have depended on how long one worked in England before emigrating.

 

20 minutes ago, facthunter said:

WE started as a Penal Colony, for "UNWANTED" People Nothing else..

When will you stop blathering out this incorrect statement and read your history. Yes. Convicts did make up an extremely high proportion of early arrivals, but let me ask you, would you voluntarily go to the the first Lunar colony to use your skills to establish it? The British needed to keep the French out of the South Pacific. To do that they needed a large naval presence. A large naval presence needed timber and fibre for rope and sails. Why do you think that a settlement was made on Norfolk Island  almost as soon as a meagre encampment was established in Sydney Cove. 

 

The island was settled by the British in March 1788, just five weeks after the First Fleet arrived in Sydney. It was chosen for a settlement because Captain Cook had identified the towering Norfolk Island pines as being useful for ships masts and the local flax as good for sails.

 

If you look at the convict lists you will see that the majority of convicts sent here were young, literate, and a history of employment. My ancestor arrived in the late 1830s  after a conviction for larceny, but he was also literate and a grocer. After his period of sentence, he established a successful business in Camperdown, Sydney and dies a well-resected member of the community. And he wasn't Robinson Crusoe for that.

 

So stop repeating the erroneous, unresearched balderdash that we have been fed as fact and as a means to second-class us.

[red750]

Dolphins vs Sharks was on Foxtel 502. Storm vs Bunnies is on now, on Gem.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Now watching Freo v Hawks on watchalf.com.au (comes with my Hawks membership); Can hear the choristers in the background as the girls are watchign coronation chicken

 

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Jerry_Atrick

[willedoo]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

When will you stop blathering out this incorrect statement and read your history. Yes. Convicts did make up an extremely high proportion of early arrivals, but let me ask you, would you voluntarily go to the the first Lunar colony to use your skills to establish it? The British needed to keep the French out of the South Pacific. To do that they needed a large naval presence. A large naval presence needed timber and fibre for rope and sails. Why do you think that a settlement was made on Norfolk Island  almost as soon as a meagre encampment was established in Sydney Cove. 

 

The island was settled by the British in March 1788, just five weeks after the First Fleet arrived in Sydney. It was chosen for a settlement because Captain Cook had identified the towering Norfolk Island pines as being useful for ships masts and the local flax as good for sails.

 

If you look at the convict lists you will see that the majority of convicts sent here were young, literate, and a history of employment. My ancestor arrived in the late 1830s  after a conviction for larceny, but he was also literate and a grocer. After his period of sentence, he established a successful business in Camperdown, Sydney and dies a well-resected member of the community. And he wasn't Robinson Crusoe for that.

 

So stop repeating the erroneous, unresearched balderdash that we have been fed as fact and as a means to second-class us.

A means to an end were the convicts.

[old man emu]

We are the product of the American Revolution. Until 1776, Britain had been transporting convicts to the American colonies. That stopped with the Revolution. Also throughout the 1700s, the Brutish had been trying to establish colonies on the equatorial west coast of Africa, close to the source of slaves. However, these failed, mainly due to tropical diseases. So when Sir Joseph Banks published his reports of his voyage with Cook, the apparently healthy climate made it worthwhile to try to establish a colony here. The friction between Britain and France as expanding empires was also a factor. France had ceded much of Canada to Britain in 1763, so resentment still ran deep in the minds of the French. Don't forget the Count de Bougainville arrived in Botany Bay a few days after the first fleet. Whatever documentation of what he had claimed for France in the South Pacific was lost with his ship on its return voyage to France.

 

France colonised many areas in South-east Asia and the South Pacific. That's why your local Vietnamese bread shop makes croissants, and don't forget on Some Enchanted Evening the French plantation owner in "South Pacific"

 

[Old Koreelah]

As OME says, the French arrived only a few days behind the British First Fleet.
https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/french-australia/fate-la-perouse#:~:text=La Perouse's ships sailed out,the expedition left Botany Bay.

Several French expeditions explored around our continent, hence so many French names of coastal features.
Australia missed out on being French by a whisker.
 

Eighteen years before, Cook was very aware of the legal implications of his voyage. Recent interpretations of his journal show evidence that he knew where he was going; he may have carried secret charts made long before by Portugese explorers (who would have kept their activities quiet, because they’d crossed “the Pope’s Line” into the Spanish hemisphere.)

It seems Cook knew that Van Diemans land was separate, long before Bass Strait was officially explored and named. 

 

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, Old Koreelah said:

Recent interpretations of his journal show evidence

Perhaps it is a sign of our searching for a true identity that we are seeking out the original documents from the late 18th Century. Perhaps the Republicans need material to say that the use of convicts was a dastardly act by the British Aristocracy, while the Monarchists try to show that it was a plan based on geo-political necessity. That there was a pool composed of people whose lives the government had strict control of, made plucking from it a sensible idea as the chances of having free, economically well-off, people go into the unknown for no real profitable reason to them, would be close to non-existent.

 

Whatever the background reason is for either group to be trawling through the archives, we are benefitting by having the Truth uncovered. Both camps have equal Right to stand up and say that Australia wasn't a dumping ground for the undesirables of Britain's cities, but a fertile field to nurture the Westminster system of Democracy. We can justly rebut the unkind epithet of "convict scum", and give praise that our ancestors were selected for their attributes. We should look to Matthew 22:14, "For many are called, but few are chosen" to express that in reality, only those with brains and useful qualifications were selected to maintain the colony after it was established.

[facthunter]

There's  some convoluted Logic there. Gov. Macquarie wasn't well received back home, for making the Place a Good place to live. It's pretty clear dumping "Undesirables/Felons" out of sight  and mind was the Main purpose of the exercise Plus beat the French  at  claiming it. They did similar with orphans later. Clean out the dross.   Nev

[old man emu]

13 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Gov. Macquarie wasn't well received back home, for making the Place a Good place to live.

Hmmm. Could say the same thing about Dutton's attacks on Labor's efforts. But I can see that despite your sobriquet, on this particular  topic, you aren't.

[facthunter]

I can't see the connection OME . Could be my limited IQ or the esoteric nature of your posts. I've always said if you use advanced language skills you'll be less understood by the Masses..  Nev