Australian Labor leader reopens republic debate

Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Photo / AAP

Bill Shorten has vowed to take steps to make Australia a republic in his first term as prime minister, saying the country's current head of state "is a foreign power".

At the Australian Republic Movement's gala dinner in Melbourne, he pointed to the words "carpe diem" on the ceiling of Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building.

"We must seize the day and become a republic," he told the cheering crowd.

He promised a Shorten Labor government will take "the first real steps to make Australia a republic in the first term of government".

That would include putting a "straightforward" 'yes or no' question to the Australian people. It had been a quarter century since the Queen told former Prime Minister Paul Keating that she would respect the decision of the Australian people to become a republic.

"The laws our Parliament enacts are passed in the name of someone who will never be an Australian citizen. The king or queen doesn't just hold an allegiance to a foreign power, they are a foreign power."

He said Australia's history did not start in 1788, it started thousands of years ago with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and "just last week we got new proof that Australians were making axes in Kakadu 65,000 years ago. We can vote for an Australian state and still respect Queen Elizabeth. We can vote for an Australian head of state and still recognise William and Kate have two seriously cute kids, and patriotically binge-watch The Crown on Netflix."

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce criticised the proposal, saying it would not deliver jobs or contribute to the country's economic development. "If you want to see what is pressing at the moment, go to any office and say what is the issue coming here and they will say, 'I cannot afford my power bill'."

Liberal Senator Eric Abetz said the plan was just "a peek into the ultra-left wing agenda" the nation would be subjected to under Labor. Cabinet minister Mathias Cormann said Shorten was merely trying to distract from his lack of a plan for the economy and jobs.