Howard republic was defeated

Don Parkes' letter of August 2 ("Revolution resulted in thousands slaughtered") says that "the Australian Republican Movement model for a republic was soundly voted out by the people in a referendum".

This is, of course, not true.

It was the John Howard model for a republic (in which the president was to be chosen by Federal politicians) that was voted out at the referendum.

Howard's crafty manipulation of the referendum process resulted in ARM supporters voting against the proposal, because they were not given the choice they wanted, i.e., a voice in the selection of a republican president.

Any ethical approach to the question would have required a two-stage vote in which citizens were first given the choice between a monarchy and a republic and, then, asked (depending on which option was chosen) how they wanted the monarch or the president selected.

However, rather than taking a rational approach to the question, Howard preferred to exploit hysterical nonsense.

Email, 10 Aug 2011 Bruce Hyland, Daleys Point