[Chris Hanson]

Well, down here in Oz, there's been a noticeable shift in national politics today. The Liberal opposition leader Brendan Nelson was defeated in a leadership ballot by the relative newcomer to politics, Malcolm Turnbull. Turnbull is wealthy and very ambitious. He is almost certainly a future Prime Minister, many people say.

Aside from the day-to-day media bulls**t and the never ending obsession with opinion polls, there is one significant point regarding the new leader: he is a noted Republican, and was one of the main spokespeople for the Australian Republican Movement at the failed referendum in 1999. If we can get bipartisan support for this (for once), it has a real chance of succeeding.

Not a moment too soon (in my opinion).

[John Whitworth]

And replace the Queen with Dame Edna Everage. Why not? Or Shane Warne perhaps, surely the greatest living Australian.Pity you can't have Boris Johnson, but he's going to be the President of the United States.

Here is the woman who should be Queen of Australia:

http://www.gaiwaterhouse.com.au/index.asp

[Chris Hanson]

No, just replace the Queen with an Australian who lives here--preferably someone with some moral integrity (there goes Warne).
It's always niggled with me that I could never become the British monarch (try as I might) and therefore Head of State of my own country. At least in a republic, I'm not specifically excluded.
I looks as if people want to be able to vote for the Head of State, so we may end up with a political President after all. Anyway, it's all academic at the moment.

You do know that Dame Edna is a character played by Barry Humphries, don't you, John?
I thought you did--just checking.

[John Whitworth]

No, no. Barry Humphties is a character played by Dame Edna. Didn't you know? And what's wrong with Shane's moral inteegrity? I mean compared with whom?

I'm still reeling from the fact that my bloody Government has made me into a citizen (as in citizen Kane or citizen Robespierre) without my say-so. Before, I was happy to be a subject of the Queen.

If it can't be Shane then it ought to be Les Murray.

[John Whitworth]

Originally posted by John Whitworth:
No, no. Barry Humphries is a character played by Dame Edna. Didn't you know? And what's wrong with Shane's moral inteegrity? I mean compared with whom?

I'm still reeling from the fact that my bloody Government has made me into a citizen (as in citizen Kane or citizen Robespierre) without my say-so. Before, I was happy to be a subject of the Queen.

If it can't be Shane then it ought to be Les Murray.