The Australian Senate Legal & Constitutional Affairs Committee has recommended in its report The Road To A Republic that any future move to make Australia a republic should have three stages.
The first step would be a plebiscite on the principle of becoming a republic. If a majority favoured a republic there would be a second plebiscite on which of five forms this should take. A group of constitutional experts would then refine this model before a referendum was held to change the constitution.
If the committee’s recommendation that the plebiscites be held at the same time as federal elections is accepted, it will be at least ten years before Australia is free of monarchy
All members of the committee agreed that programmes of constitutional education would be needed.
The Australian Republican Movement welcomed the report.