Republicans try to remove word 'president' and 'republic' from voting question - No 2

Republicans have claimed that ACM was lying when we mentioned that Malcolm Turnbull had wanted to remove two words from the 1999 referendum question.

The words were "president" and "republic".

A glance at the Hansard report of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on 5 July 1999 shows we are correct.
Now here's the coup de grâce. We have two videos which show we were absolutely accurate. In the first you can clearly hear Mr. Turnbull proposing an amended question in which the words are deleted. In the second he is challenged about this by a leading republican.


Clearly confused by his proposal to remove the two words, the 'passionate' republican MP Linda Roxon, now Attorney General in the Gillard Government, pins Malcolm Turnbull down at the hearing:

I have noticed that in your suggested change you have also dropped the reference to a republic....The other thing is that I have noticed you use 'Australia's head of state', rather than 'President'.....

Mr. Turnbull gives a long, convoluted and entirely unconvincing answer. It is clear that he wants the two words removed. But this does not convince his supporters who are upset by this.

His proposal was greeted by a torrent of ridicule and condemnation, not by monarchists, but by his republican supporters.

In the meantime, talk back radio went into overdrive.

"Turnbull's republic strategy: please don't mention the President," and "Republicans Running Away from Their Republic" screamed The Australian the next morning.

The Canberra Times also heaped ridicule on them. Their headline recalls the BBC comedy, Fawlty Towers.
"Don't mention the republic," they sneered.
Finally Malcolm Turnbull compromised proposing instead that the question refer to the President replacing the Queen as Head of State.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Remove
• words
• President
• Republic
• from
• referndum
• question
• Malcom
• Turnbull

[kcirdrab]

Turnbull's a trecherous devious weasel, this was a retardedly obvious attempt to thought police the debate using weasel words