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Australian Republican Movement




The Australian Republican Movement was founded in July 1991 . Its first chairman was the novelist Thomas Keneally , with other founding members including the lawyer Malcolm Turnbull , the former Australia n cricket captain, Ian Chappell , and the film director Fred Schepisi . It is currently headed by former management consultant Ted O'Brien .

It was founded as a non-partisan group advocating the constitutional change to a Republic , following the Australian Labor Party 's adoption of Republicanism as its policy.

Although opinion polls showed that most Australians favoured becoming a republic, divisions emerged in the Movement between those who favoured indirect election of the President by Parliament , and those who favoured direct election by the people. This led to Australian voters rejecting at a referendum in 1999 a constitutional amendment to a specific form of republic described by some as the "minimalist" model because it involved the least change to the constitution of the various republican models proposed.


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