Republicanism is the political science expression of liberalism. As with democracy, they require the osmosis of interaction, deliberation, competition, discourse and openness for them to have any public legitimacy. When the polis is fenced and the arms of the state oversee - it ceases to be the political republic and instead becomes the state's exclusive executive garden. The polis is temporarily drained until the state leaves and the urbanites come back.

Photo from Sydney Daily Photo: Wrapping democracy in a 3m high fence

As Gary Sauer-Thompson noted urban space and urbanity are important concepts of freedom. Walling off the polis with fences, snipers, helicopters and police who delete photos from cameras is a state-led intrusion into that freedom.

At federation the national government was given a political playground of its own; called Canberra. No level of politics, even international, is worth the intrusion into Sydney's cosmopolitanism.

The politicians can have their meetings in Canberra and if they don't like that, they can set up a tent in a sheep paddock outside Tidbinbilla and stock it with local wine. They can wear Akubras and indulge in unintentional mockery of the larrikin myth.

Cam Riley: South Sea Republic. Freedom, liberty, equity and an Australian Republic.

Comments
  • cam . # .
    Why would you scar Darling Harbour like that?
    'Sworn to no party, and of no sect am I.' Frederick Vosper's republican motto.