This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to theechidna.com.au Well, that didn't take long. After four days of togetherness as the UK celebrated the Queen's platinum jubilee, the country was immediately reminded of someone who had divided it for years - Boris Johnson. As the bunting came down, the mop-headed miscreant whose upper class twittery is legendary survived a Conservative Party no-confidence vote in the wake of Partygate but his future now looks very sketchy. But that's a matter for the scandal-weary British. Of concern to us is the future of the monarchy here in Australia. The election of the Albanese Labor government, and the inescapable reality Queen Elizabeth's reign is nearing its end, have inched us closer towards a republic. But the operative word is "inched". We now have an assistant minister for the republic but don't hold your breath for a referendum in Labor's first term; the new government's immediate constitutional focus will be on recognition of First Nations people and their Voice to Parliament. The republic ministerial role for the moment is, we're told, about educating the nation that we can have own our head of state should we choose to do so. We chose not to in the 1999 referendum. Things are different in 2022. Yes, we are still fond of the Queen. For seven decades, she's been a constant in our lives. We lined up with classmates when she visited. Before 1974, when Advance Australia Fair became the national anthem, we sang God Save The Queen. Many of us protested too, affronted by the role her proxy Sir John Kerr played in the dismissal of the Whitlam government. Before the pandemic put hand hygiene front and centre, when we still carried cash, we were reminded of her whenever we handled coins. Nowadays, we mainly use coins as trolley tokens at Aldi. While we might have marvelled at the pageantry of the jubilee celebrations, been touched by the skit with Paddington Bear and disturbed by the hologram in the golden carriage, but now it's all over we're faced with a serious question: What comes next? It's unlikely there'll be the same affection for King Charles. Remote and a little daffy, he's hard to imagine as our head of state. As a system of government, and apart from the dismissal of Whitlam, our monarchy has served us well. Transitions of power from one party to another are orderly. Laws are passed, government generally functions. However, there's no reason we can't evolve into a system which reflects us as a nation more accurately. Modern Australia's egalitarianism is exemplified by our prime minister's journey from public housing to The Lodge. As a country we seem ill fitted for aristocratic entitlement and peerage. When Tony Abbott, as PM, awarded that ridiculous knighthood to the late Prince Phillip, he was punished in the court of public opinion. The misstep - a lurch into a past we had long left behind - no doubt sweetened republican Malcolm Turnbull's victory over Abbott in the spill of September 2015. Two months later, Turnbull removed knights and dames from the Honours List. We might still be years away from becoming a republic but it's a conversation we ought to be having now. What would it look like? How would it serve us? Is it indeed necessary at all? HAVE YOUR SAY: Should Australia become a republic? Will a future King Charles serve us as well as Queen Elizabeth did? On which coin does The Echidna feature? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: - Bruce Lehrmann, the man accused of raping Brittany Higgins in Parliament House, will stand trial from June 27. The trial, due to begin this week, was delayed after his former legal team withdrew from the case. - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed there will be a review of the controversial Port of Darwin lease to a Chinese company. - Accommodation platform Airbnb is facing legal action after being accused of misleading Australian customers into paying for bookings in US dollars, leaving them out of pocket. THEY SAID IT: "Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say 'God Save the Queen', because nothing will save the Governor-General." - Gough Whitlam YOU SAID IT: "To curb my spending I have cut one meal a day looks like it will be two meals per day. Sometimes I do get a free meal." - Gary "If you're going to eat chokos pick the green tips off the vine and cook them. They taste a bit like mild spinach and are very nutritious. The people of PNG eat them a lot." - Bruce "Interest rates are not rising there just on there way back to normal. Everyone seems to have forgotten that self funded retirees rely on interest rates for some of their income. Normal interest rates are 6 per cent to 8 per cent so there's a long way to go before we say they are rising." - Ross "With my limited knowledge of inflation, I cannot help but feel that all those cash splashes during COVID started this mess. The money went to people who didn't need it and missed those that did. People haven't stopped spending since." - Samantha "As someone who lives on the pension, and rents, the gloomy economic news doesn't exactly fill me with joy. I anticipate things will get rather difficult for the hundreds of thousands in my situation. The sad thing is, it need not have been this bad, when you consider the sheer incompetence, and venality of the ideologically driven previous government, the so-called superior economic managers. The new treasurer and his colleagues certainly have the job ahead of them. And of course, they'll have the total support of the MSM, won't they?" - Ces "Things must be crook if Echidna is resorting to chokos. As retirees we are fortunate in being mortgage free, but the retirement fund is slowly decreasing and inflation is currently affecting us most at the petrol pump and in the supermarket. We are trying to reduce our discretionary spending as much as possible by categorising spending into 'wants' and 'needs'. Dining out is the first to take a hit, and when a cappuccino costs $5 that will go too." - Bob
