The federal government under Anthony Albanese, regardless of what it admits and what the media reports, is moving fast to implement Labor’s long-term plan to redesign Australia.

The Prime Minister knows he has only six years, at most, before a novo Liberal Party inevitably and ultimately regenerates itself by truly adopting Menzies’ values. Albanese already faces extreme economic challenges that many believe he is not capable of transcending. His response to soaring energy costs has been to impose a rushed, Marxist cap on gas prices. It is a measure that is avoidable in theory and East German in practise. By commissioning additional coal-fired power stations, energy rationing would never become a reality in Australia; instead, it likely lurks in the near future thanks to the Prime Minister’s Net Zero policies.

This is the most socialist Prime Minister and federal government since Gough Whitlam. Labor’s haphazard gas strategy ultimately serves to drive gas out of the energy sector and pave the way for Net Zero-aligned energies like wind and solar – industries that are predicated more upon ideology than reality.

Despite staring into this economic abyss, Labor continues with its highest priority, a priority it has fanned in vengeance since 1975 and which Labor is now ready to let blaze across the nation as a wildfire resulting in the radical mutation of the Australian Constitution.

The ultimate mutation of our Constitution is to rip out its heart, that being the Crown, and to devolve Australia from a constitutional monarchy into a republic. The Canberran Labor class – the politicians, bureaucrats, union elites, activists, and the pseudo-moral celebrities – have coveted the destruction of the Crown ever since the Crown destroyed Whitlam. Indeed, in recent years, we have seen a resurgence in mentions of Whitlam. If the republic referendum should come in 2025, 50 years after the dismissal, perhaps we should not be surprised. Labor has always inclined towards symbolism.

The Albanese government is thus moving with great speed to see Labor’s designs realised. Already, the Prime Minister has taken the extraordinary step of appointing an Assistant Minister for the Republic. This is a minister who hypocritically swore an Oath of Allegiance and loyalty to the Crown; a minister who has attacked our Constitution and British heritage; a minister who purports to also represent the affairs of monarchist defence force personnel and veterans; and a minister who has announced that in 2023 he is embarking on a nationwide, taxpayer-funded indoctrination campaign to proselytise an Australian republic.

No republic referendum has yet been held, and with Labor’s all-time low primary vote of 32.58 per cent, coupled with the fact that 58 per cent of Labor voters support the retention of the monarchy, it is not even clear if the Australian people want the Prime Minister to proceed with this schedule.

To expedite its ambitions, the federal government has embraced many of the radical and heinous ideas that have sprouted from a corrupted university sector, and now inflicts these upon the electorate. We are told that the foundations of our nation, such as the Crown and the Constitution, are racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-progressive, inhumane, and so on (pick your pejorative). We are told that we must atone for the egregious actions of our ancestors and that this we may only do by approving of the Prime Minister’s radical, pseudo-moral constitutional reform agenda. Should we disapprove, or simply ask for clarity, we are told that we are part of the problem. Compassion has now been weaponised, and for dissenters there can only be societal ostracisation. It is emotional manipulation of the most Orwellian kind, devised and executed by a very loud, very dangerous minority within our country.

Until now, the Australian Monarchist League has held no position on the Voice. However, after months of waiting for the Prime Minister to exactly detail the Voice’s constitutional implications, we are forced to conclude that, in our opinion, the Voice is no longer a genuine attempt to constitutionally recognise Indigenous Australians. Perhaps this is evidenced by the surplus of Indigenous and pro-Indigenous individuals and organisations that oppose it – or, better yet, certain politicians and elites who champion it.

Instead, we think the Voice now appears little more than a trial run ahead of a republic referendum, a test to see if the Australian people are so apathetic as to blindly trust the government and sign a blank cheque on constitutional change. Politicians, more than anyone, else stand to benefit from a republic; if the electorate gives them the opportunity, they will mould that republic to their exact specifications.

We note the new Chair of the Australian Republic Movement, Craig Foster, supports the Voice and sees it as ‘complementary’ to any republic.

We also note the experience of our Campaign Chairman, Eric Abetz, when he appeared on Q+A in the wake of The Queen’s passing. For 60 minutes, Eric was portrayed as a racist whose monarchism continues to deny the ‘sovereignty of First Nations peoples’. Of Eric, it was said that ‘colonisers will always cherry-pick a black voice [such as Neville Bonner] that suits their agenda’. Of the Crown, it was said that ‘racism [is] written into it’. One panellist said that becoming a republic was not about ‘just the Head of State’ but rather about changing ‘our flag’ and ‘our anthem’ as well. That episode of Q+A was later titled, Royalty, a Republic, and Truth-Telling, suggesting the perceived inextricable connection between the Voice and the republic by not just the panellists but also the ABC. Three days after Royalty, a Republic and Truth-Telling went to air, Stan Grant, who had moderated the episode, penned an editorial that claimed ‘black families lived in poverty that the Crown inflicted on them’.

Let us state categorically: the Crown is not racist. The Constitution is not racist. Her Late Majesty was not racist. His Majesty The King is not racist. Any insinuation otherwise is false and appalling and must be deemed deliberately malicious. We too are not racist. One of our office-bearers is a proud Yugambeh man. In 1999, during the republic referendum, we toured remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory to discuss the Constitution. These communities, who told us they regarded The Queen as an elder, overwhelmingly voted against Malcolm Turnbull’s republic.

Thus, it must be said that we, the Australian Monarchist League, find it very hard to come to a final decision so long as the federal government refuses to explain to Australians what the exact detail of change to the Constitution will be. If the Prime Minister continues to avoid providing such detail then our only alternative will be to recommend to our National Council to oppose the Voice. In any case, we strongly resent the increase in Voice advocates’ racial prejudice against the Crown, the Constitution, the Commonwealth of Australia and the Australian people, simply for being Australian.

The Voice, or any proposed constitutional change, must be treated with meticulous diligence, both by governments and voters. Just as an accused is assumed innocent until evidence determines otherwise, we cannot possibly encourage blind support for constitutional reform so shrouded in ambiguity. To do so would fly in the face of everything we stand for. The Voice must be put to the Australian people in detail before it is put to referendum.

Until the Prime Minister elucidates the Voice’s exact constitutional mechanisms, and further provides incontrovertible proof that the Voice is not merely a case study in relation to the republic referendum, we will be recommending to our near 55,000 supporters that they adopt our scepticism.

Alexander Voltz is a composer and Spokesperson for the Australian Monarchist League. This article is developed from an official communique sent by the League’s National Chairman, Philip Benwell MBE, on 28 December 2022. Join the League today.