Australian Treasurer Joe Hockey pushes for a republic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-34059115

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Treasurer Joe Hockey is expected to lead a new cross-party push for Australia to become a republic.

Mr Hockey will co-convene a parliamentary group lobbying for a plebiscite to be held by 2020 on having an Australian head of state.

The move is expected to put the treasurer at odds with avowed monarchist Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Australia is a parliamentary democracy that retains Britain's monarch as head of state.

Mr Hockey's involvement in the group was announced by his close friend, journalist and Australian Republican Movement chair Peter FitzSimons.

"The key thing I wish to say today, is we are putting the band back together," Mr FitzSimons said, referring to the work he has done in the past with Mr Hockey on the republican movement.

"It's the hope in the next five years, Australia can begin the formal process towards becoming the Republic of Australia," Mr FitzSimons said, speaking at a National Press Club address in Canberra.

Mr Hockey has yet to comment on the new group, which he will convene with Labor senator Katy Gallagher, but a spokesperson from his office said he had long advocated his views on this issue "and those views haven't changed".

In contrast, in January, on Australia's national day, Mr Abbott reinforced his long-held commitment to the monarchy by controversially announcing a knighthood for Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

In 1999, Australia held a referendum on having an Australian head of state but it failed because the public wanted to vote directly for a president.

The referendum asked only if people wanted a republic with a president appointed by parliament.

The debate was briefly revived by the Queen's representative in Australia Quentin Bryce in 2013, when she became the first serving governor-general to publicly back the country becoming a republic.

But last year Australia's support for a republic appeared to drop to its lowest level in more than three decades, around the time of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit to the country.

A Fairfax Media poll at that time found 51% of Australians polled believed a switch to a republic was unnecessary, with 42% backing a republic, down from a high of 58% in 1999.