Australia Vote Keeps Monarchy

It may have been a case of damning with faint praise, but Australians on Saturday rejected a referendum to make their nation a republic and drop Britain's queen as their head of state.

Although Australians voted to keep Queen Elizabeth as their monarch, it wasn't necessarily because they want her. Polls showed most Australians would have voted against her if the republic alternative being offered allowed them to vote directly for a president, reports CBS News Senior European Correspondent Tom Fenton.

With almost 80 percent of the vote counted by the official Australian Electoral Commission, 55 percent of Australians voted against the republic, compared to 45 percent in favor.

"Today is a very, very special day in the history of our great country, Australia," said Kerry Jones, who led the monarchist campaign, to cheering supporters at a victory party. "The Australian people have had their say, and they said 'No' to dumping the queen."

Settled as a British colony in 1788, Australia has been an independent nation since its six states federated in 1901. But like many Commonwealth countries such as Canada and New Zealand, it still recognizes the British monarch as its head of state.

After the vote, Queen Elizabeth II, who with her husband Prince Phillip is scheduled to make a visit to Australia in March, issued a statement from Buckingham Palace in London.

"I respect and accept this result," she said. "I have always made it clear that the future of the monarchy in Australia is an issue for the Australian people and them alone to decide, by democratic and constitutional means."

While Queen Elizabeth could comfortably present the Rugby World Cup to the victorious Australian team, she faces the same referendum test in other countries, like New Zealand and Canada.

Right in the queen's own backyard, modern times are knocking on the door of the House of Lords. A constitutional reform forces out hundreds of hereditary peers from an 800-year-old institution almost as old as the monarchy itself.

As Labor Party MP Tony Banks said, "We don't have hereditary plumbers, or hereditary engineers, so why have hereditary legislators?"

Saturday's results were a major victory for monarchist Prime Minister John Howard, who had argued against constitutional change -- although voters in Howard's wealthy Sydney constituency backed a republic.

But defiant republicans vowed to fight on, pinning the defeat on Howard's refusal to allow Australians the chance to choose their own president directly.

"John Howard had a chance to be remembered in history as a man who shaped this nation," republican campaign chief Malcolm Turnbull told supporters. "But he will just be remembered as the prime minister who broke this nation's heart. He was the man who made Australia keep a foreign queen."

Opposition leader Kim Beazley said his party would keep the republic issue on the political agenda an allow voters the choice for a directly elected president.

Voters also rejected a second question, a proposal to include a preamble in the constitution that would have recognized Australia's indigenous people in the nation's founding document.

Indigenous campaigner Lowitja O'Donoghue said the preamble didn't go far enough, and failed to achieve its own goal. When voters got the message that aboriginal people weren't happy with the proposal, they rejected it too, she said.

The result of the historic referendum was greeted by cheering and champagne at a monarchist campaign rally in Sydney's Darling Harbour.

"This victory tonight is claimed not on behalf of one group of Australians over another. Let this result be celebrated by all Australians as a victory for our democracy," Jones said.

Written By Rohan Sullivan