Treasurer Joe Hockey to lead push for republic; joins Labor senator to form Parliamentary Friendship Group

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey is set to lead a renewed push among his parliamentary colleagues for Australia to become a republic.

Mr Hockey and Labor senator Katy Gallagher are forming a Parliamentary Friendship Group to revive debate about the issue, which has been effectively dormant since the failed 1999 referendum.

The announcement was made by Mr Hockey’s friend, and the head of the Australian Republican Movement, Peter FitzSimons at the National Press Club.

“The key thing I wish to say today, is we are putting the band back together,” FitzSimons said.

“It’s the hope in the next five years, Australia can begin the formal process towards becoming the Republic of Australia.

“A republic that we deserve to be, an independent sovereign nation beneath the Southern Cross we stand, a sprig of wattle in our hand.”

The Treasurer supported the 1999 referendum and is one of the most prominent republicans in Government, along with Cabinet colleague Malcolm Turnbull, who led the Australian Republican Movement before entering Parliament.

However, the timing of today’s announcement is likely to raise eyebrows within Government, given the Coalition has struggled in recent months to maintain focus on its agenda of jobs and economic growth.

In 2004, Mr Hockey described the then-Labor leader Mark Latham’s push for another republic referendum as a “distraction”.

“When you’ve got hospitals and schools and police and security as you talked about — the issues that really matter — including national security, Mark Latham is off talking about the republic and as an avowed republican, I don’t know where he’s coming from,” he told Lateline at the time.

In that interview, he said if another referendum were to be held “let’s get it right and let’s get it up”.

Source: abc.net.au