The Wire

John Howard may be urging schools to start their day with the national flag and a rousing rendition of our anthem … but it’s only been five years since we last seriously questioned what it means to be Australian. The debate over an Australian republic seems to have fallen off the radar since the failure of the 1999 referendum. But now, Mark McKenna, Australian Research Fellow in the History Department at the Australian National University, hopes to reignite the discussion over our country’s future with his new book, “Our Country: A reconciled republic?” He argues passionately that we need to have a new vision for an Australian republic, one linked with reconciliation for indigenous Australians.