Since the failure of the 1999 Republican referendum the issue of Australia becoming a Republic has been in a political deep freeze for close to twenty years. Recently however there have been attempts by the Australian Republican movement to reignite a national conversation on this subject and with members of the Royal Family due to visit Australia later this year perhaps the question of Australia becoming a republic might begin its long thaw.

In this episode of The Policy Shop we discuss, not the politics of Australia becoming a Republic, but instead we examine the policy lessons from Australia's previous fractious Republican referendum and tease out some models of what a possible Australian Republic could look like.

Dr Benjamin Jones, Australian Research Council Fellow in the School of History at the Australian National University and the author of This Time: Australia’s Republican Past and Future and Laureate Professor Emeritus in the Melbourne Law School at The University of Melbourne, Cheryl Saunders AO join the host, Professor Glyn Davis. 

The Policy Shop is produced by Eoin Hahessy with audio engineering by Gavin Neubauer at the Horwood Studio at The University of Melbourne.