During the 1999 campaign prominent republicans argued that a republic would reduce unemployment, free artists, improve trade, encourage immigration, make us independent and a host of hotel improbable reasons. The real reason appears to be to  extend the influence and control of the political class over the Australian people The Australian constitutional system is one of the world’s most successful .While we are a young country, we are one of the world’s seven oldest continuing democracies. Of these five are constitutional monarchies, of which four have Elizabeth II as their Queen.

The republics are Switzerland and the United States, and if we disregard their civil wars, they have been almost as stable as the monarchies. The Swiss system could not be adopted elsewhere; it is so specifically designed for the Swiss. Whenever the US system has been exported it has not worked for long. For the last two decades, the United Nations has been producing an annual Human Development Index. This measures the nations according to the health, education and wealth of their populations.

The constitutional monarchies, although smaller in number, are all clustered towards the top, and usually dominate the top five. Almost anyone can write a constitution; few have lasted for as long as ours - in war and in peace, in prosperity and in depression. The great success of the English speaking countries has  been their  institutions and in their evolving systems of government which are stable, and which provide adequate checks and balances on the potential abuse of power. The Australian Crown is our oldest constitutional institution, and today it provides leadership beyond politics. We should always remember that the Australian Crown is important not so much for the power it wields, but because of the power it denies others.