This 'gathering' was in fact 7 or 8 young monarchists sitting around a boardroom table listening to the well-rehearsed monarchist diatribe that Tony Abbot has been espousing for years.
But the mere existence of an organised group of young monarchists - however small that may be - is incomprehensible to me. We live in a country built on the ideals of egalitarianism and a fair go, where each and every citizen should be able to aspire to any position in Australia - including the highest public office of all.
Young people especially have grown up in an Australia devoid of the Britishness and deference to the motherland that dominated our national development up until the 1970s.
We should ask these young monarchists why they stand against the notion of achievement by merit, and why they are comfortable to turn their backs on this country's first opportunity in almost 100 years to renounce the anachronistic values of monarchy. The inheritence of power as a birthright, elevation of male over female, and religious prejudice are values which belong in medieval Europe, not modern Australia.
Luke Ritchie
Young Australians for a Republic
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