title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The negotiation team leader did not think Monis would hurt anyone because Monis had told people inside the cafe that everyone would go home once Prime Minister Tony Abbott called. The team leader later conceded that Abbott was never going to call. Forensic advice given to the police by an unnamed consultant psychiatrist was that Monis was probably undertaking a grandiose act to be recognised as a figure of great infamy rather than wishing to hurt anyone. He doubted that Monis actually represented ISIS because he did not have the correct flag, nor that his actions were politically motivated. The psychiatrist warned that "a wounded narcissist is a dangerous specimen" as none of Monis's demands were met.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Authorities did not release an estimate of the number of hostages inside the café during the siege. After the siege, a total of 18 hostages was confirmed—eight staff and ten customers of the café including lawyers and Westpac employees with offices close by. Initial estimates varied, with some significantly overestimating the number.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Katrina Dawson, a 38-year-old barrister, was killed when hit by seven police bullet fragments while lying behind a chair, which was hit by 10 bullets.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Three hostages and a police officer were wounded by police gunfire during the raid. The three hostages were Marcia Mikhael, who was shot in the leg; Robyn Hope, a 75-year-old woman who was shot in the shoulder; and Louisa Hope, her 52-year-old daughter, who was shot in the foot.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: All three were in a stable condition after treatment. Paolo Vassallo, one of the five hostages who initially escaped the scene, was hospitalised for a pre-existing condition.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The other hostages were identified as John O'Brien, Stefan Balafoutis, Elly Chen, Jieun Bae, Harriette Denny, Viswakanth Ankireddy, Joel Herat, Fiona Ma, Jarrod Hoffman, Puspendu Ghosh, Selina Win Pe, and Julie Taylor.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Memorial services for Johnson and Dawson were held on 23 December: Johnson's in the morning at St Stephen's Uniting Church, Sydney, and Dawson's in the afternoon in the Great Hall of the University of Sydney. Interviews with some of the hostages were later recorded for television and broadcast, amid some controversy.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: After the siege began, a staged exclusion zone was established with thousands of people evacuated from nearby buildings, including from the floors above the café. The Sydney Opera House was evacuated after a suspicious package was found; however, reports were unconfirmed by police. The US Consulate General in Sydney, located in Martin Place, was also evacuated. Some Sydney schools were put in "white level lockout" due to the hostage situation, which meant that no school group was permitted to leave the school grounds.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Police advised people in the area bounded by Hunter, George, Elizabeth, and Macquarie streets, bordering Martin Place, to remain indoors and away from windows. Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and ANZ closed their CBD branches for the day. The State Library was also closed. Numerous other buildings, including David Jones stores, executive offices for the New South Wales Parliament, criminal courts for the Supreme Court, the Downing Centre, and "several city legal chambers" were evacuated, as were the facilities of the Seven Network, situated directly across from the café, forcing "The Morning Show" to suspend transmission. Police established an emergency centre in nearby Hyde Park in response to the unfolding situation with emergency services sent to the area to respond to any immediate threats and evacuees were relocated to the park as a safety precaution.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Trains did not stop at Martin Place railway station during the incident. Transport for NSW advised people to stay away from the CBD. Road closures prevented southbound access to the Cahill Expressway, York Street, and Harbour Street, and northbound access to the Cahill Expressway, and all traffic was diverted to the Sydney Harbour Tunnel. On the morning of 16 December, road diversions remained in place and Martin Place train station remained closed. In the evening of 16 December, Elizabeth Street, Macquarie Street and Hunter Street were opened to traffic.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Uber fares for travel in Sydney surged during the event under the company's dynamic pricing system, which led to criticism. Uber subsequently refunded excessive fares and provided free rides out of the CBD.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Iranian-born Monis was identified as the hostage-taker and named early on the morning of 16 December.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: In September 2009, Monis was convicted for criminal use of the postal service to "menace, harass or cause offence", for a campaign protesting the presence of Australian troops in Afghanistan, by writing letters to the families of soldiers killed there, in which he called the soldiers murderers. On 12 December, three days before the siege, Monis lost his appeal against his conviction and was sentenced to 300 hours of community service. Monis had been charged with accessory to murder relating to the death of his former wife who was found stabbed eighteen times, and set alight, on 21 April 2013 at a unit block in Werrington. However, on 12 December 2013, Magistrate William Pierce said "It is a weak case" and granted Monis bail. In November 2016, Amirah Droudis was found guilty, in a judge-only trial, of the murder of Monis's ex-wife and sentenced to 44 years' jail.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Monis also had numerous charges of sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, and common assault. On 14 April 2014, Monis was charged with three sexual assault offences against a woman and remanded in custody. He was granted bail on 26 May, six days after the Bail Act in New South Wales was rewritten based on recommendations by the New South Wales Law Reform Commission. On 10 October, he was charged with another 40 sexual assault offences against six more women, and his bail was continued.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Jeremy Gormly SC, counsel assisting the inquest, summarised Monis as "a complex, disturbed individual desperate for recognition and status but completely lacking the skills or achievements to bring that dream to life". Gormly summarised that "Monis could be plausible, courteous and controlled, but he was also almost entirely consumed in his own self-importance. ... By 2014, he owned no property, was in debt, and had developed no employment skills. His attempts to develop a personal, religious following ... had failed. ... He was facing future serious criminal charges... he had made no public impact of note on the Australian political scene". Monis may have felt that he had "little left to live for".


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: No weapons were found when police raided his home in 2013. From 1997 to 2000, Monis held a security guard licence, which would have let him carry a pistol between March and June 1997. The weapon that Monis used, a sawn-off French-made Manufrance La Salle pump-action shotgun, was more than 50 years old. Police believe the weapon was imported in the 1950s, when no registration was required. Monis had 23 shotgun cartridges of different brands on him, between 15 and 20 years old.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The Prime Minister convened the National Security Committee of Cabinet to give briefings on the situation and said "Australians should be reassured that our law enforcement and security agencies are well trained and equipped and are responding in a thorough and professional manner." He later said, "The whole point of politically motivated violence is to scare people out of being themselves. Australia is a peaceful, open, and generous society. Nothing should ever change that and that's why I would urge all Australians today to go about their business as usual", and "Australians should be reassured by the way our law enforcement and security agencies responded to this brush with terrorism."


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The Premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird, addressed the media during the stand-off, and stated "we are being tested today... in Sydney. The police are being tested, the public is being tested, but whatever the test we will face it head on and we will remain a strong democratic, civil society. I have full confidence in the Police Commissioner and the incredible work of the NSW police force.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, on the morning of 16 December, urged Australians to see this as a "one-off event", stating, "We're an inclusive multicultural community and we need to deal with this together". Governor-General of Australia, Sir Peter Cosgrove, released a statement sympathising with the families, commending the work of the police involved, and urging Australians to "unite in our resolve to protect what we value most—our way of life, our care and respect for each other".


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Thousands of people visited the site in the first few days after the incident to pay tribute to the victims. Among them were members of the families of Dawson and Johnson. Johnson's father was accompanied by rabbis Levi Wolff and Zalmen Kastel, Hindu priest Pandit Ramachandra, the Reverend Bill Crews and Sheikh Wesam Charkawi. Dawson's young daughter left her own note.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Flags on all NSW government buildings, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge, flew at half-mast to honour the hostages who lost their lives at the café.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: A magistrate who had granted Monis bail and the lawyers who had represented him in his court appearances received death threats in the days after the attack. This reaction was described by the Bar Association as "understandable but wrong-headed", as magistrates have to deal with cases as they come before them on the basis of the law at the time.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: During and immediately following the incident, some in the community expressed concern about an increased potential for violence or intimidation directed at Muslims in Australia. For example, the head of the Australian Muslim Women's Association told the media there was an increase in anti-Muslim messages being posted on social media. Due to this concern among some local social media users, many started using the hashtag "#illridewithyou" [I'll ride with you]. This sought to offer solidarity and emotional support to Muslims travelling alone on public transport by people tweeting their bus/train route and suggesting that they would be willing to "ride with" anyone who might feel threatened. More than 150,000 people indicated their support of the concept by using the hashtag. The campaign was initially inspired by a Facebook status update about offering to walk with a woman who had removed her head covering. The campaign received international attention, including from United States President Barack Obama, although federal National Party member of Parliament George Christensen criticised the campaign for creating "false victims" out of Muslims and thereby taking attention away from the hostages.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: On the morning of 16 December, after police declared the crisis to be over, a makeshift memorial began to take shape in Martin Place. From the first bunch of lilies, tributes developed into a field of flowers that "you can smell before you can see" and which was extensively reported and photographed. The Prime Minister and NSW Premier were among many in the community to lay flowers at the memorial in a demarcated space. Flowers were also taken to suburban Lindt shops.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Volunteers from the Rural Fire Service, the State Emergency Service and the Red Cross began clearing the flowers on 22 December after consultation with the families, because rain was expected. It was announced that the condolence books would be bound in several volumes and one complete copy provided to each family. The messages on the many cards were to be digitised. During the week after the siege, it was estimated that 110,000 bouquets were laid at Martin Place.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: During the siege, Sanier Dandan, president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, informed ABC News that Australian Muslim leaders were meeting online for discussions as to how the Muslim community could help with the situation. He added, "Regardless, we have a hostage situation. Whether he is someone who belongs to the Australian Muslim community or not, we are still waiting for information to be provided by police and based on that if there's something the Muslim community can do or assist, we are there."


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, the Grand Mufti of Australia, condemned the incident in a statement released on 15 December. The same afternoon, around fifty Muslim groups issued a joint statement in which they condemned the incident. The Australian Ahmadiyya Muslim Association condemned the incident, the national president saying that "such actions are criminal and totally contrary to the teachings of Islam." Egypt's Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam also condemned the attack.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: In Martin Place, the 2014 traditional Hanukkah menorah presented a message of support: "May the lights of the festival of Hanukkah bring comfort and warmth to our nation".


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, invoked the special prayers in the Roman Missal from the "Mass in times of civil disturbance" and a memorial service was held at St Mary's Cathedral, on the morning of 19 December.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: St James' Church, which had been within the exclusion zone, held a "Service of Remembrance and Reflection" on the afternoon of 19 December. The service was attended by about 400 people, most of them members of the legal profession.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: During the siege, a spokesman for the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, said, "We urge all Canadians in Sydney to use extra precaution and limit their movements as authorities handle this situation."


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Iran Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, strongly condemned the taking of hostages as "inhuman" and also stated that the Australian authorities had been repeatedly warned about Monis.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: United States President Barack Obama called the Prime Minister to express his condolences on behalf of the United States. According to the White House, Obama praised the "Australian public's embrace of #illridewithyou and the Muslim leaders who have disavowed the actions of the hostage taker", and "Australia's rejection of any violence taken in the name of religion and the fear this violence seeks to stoke." The President also conveyed the United States' willingness to provide assistance in the aftermath of the situation. United States Secretary of State, John Kerry, said the United States stood ready to provide Australia with any assistance required in "determining the facts of the case, assisting the victims and holding accountable anyone and everyone responsible for this act of terror". Citing this event, the United States issued a global travel alert to its citizens, to be alert for possible terrorist attacks within public venues.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak also expressed their concern about the incident. In addition, the Israeli embassy in Australia stated that it stood with Australia in the face of terror.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Following the two deaths during the hostage situation, the Katrina Dawson Foundation was established, with the aim of supporting educational opportunities for women. The then Governor-General Quentin Bryce was a founding member. At his parents' request, a memorial fund for Johnson was used to raise money for mental health organisation Beyond Blue. The first donation, of $51,000, came from Lindt Australia.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Two weeks after the siege, "Dabiq", a magazine published by the ISIL editorialised on Monis's actions and attempted to claim him as one of their own, in a response that an expert described as "absolutely predictable". The magazine lauded Monis's actions and their effect on the city. The al Qaeda-produced magazine "Inspire" also praised Monis's actions.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Police investigations include a "critical incident" investigation undertaken by NSW police; headed by Detective Inspector Angelo Memmolo and an enquiry conducted by the Australian Federal Police.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Federal and state governments announced a joint review to be led by Michael Thawley from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and Blair Comley of the New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Following the siege, officers from the New South Wales Police Force and the Australian Federal Police went to the Belmore home of Monis's partner Amirah Droudis, and removed property. Her bail was revoked after a hearing on 22 December 2014. Investigations by Australian security agencies and monitoring of suspects following the siege revealed increased "terror chatter".


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The findings of the Federal–State joint review were released on 22 February 2015. The report covered Monis's earlier interactions with the government, his access to firearms, and the government response to Monis including problems correlating his various aliases. The report's terms of reference did not cover the controversial police actions during the siege itself, such as the nature of the negotiations or the final assault.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The review found that the judgements made by government agencies were reasonable. It suggested only modest changes to laws and procedures, taking the view that "introducing substantial further controls involves a larger choice about the sort of society we wish to live in and is properly the province of the public and our elected representatives". The review found that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had conducted a thorough review of Monis in 2008/9 and found that he was not involved in politically motivated violence, nor had significant contact with groups of security concern. After receiving 18 calls from the public, ASIO reviewed Monis's Facebook page, which was considered not to indicate a threat. None of the calls related to any pending attack. The review found that there was no credible information that would indicate an attack. Monis had been granted bail while charged with several violent offences. However, bail laws had since been tightened in this regard. Monis obtained his firearm illegally and was never granted a license.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The review suggested, in addition to the reforms to the bail laws and "new programmes to counter violent extremism", that a review of immigration policies and visa applications should be undertaken. The review suggested that the gun that Monis used had lawfully entered the country, possibly as early as the 1950s, and had fallen into the "grey market" after not being included in the gun buyback schemes of 1996 and 2002.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: An inquest, mandatory whenever people die in a police operation, began as scheduled on 29 January 2015, presided over by the State Coroner, Michael Barnes. The stated aim was "to determine how the [three] deaths occurred, the factors that contributed to them and whether they could have been prevented".


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The hearings were divided into blocks of a couple of weeks. The first, which started on 25 May 2015, queried people who knew Monis to get background information. The second started on 17 August 2015 to consider Monis's bail application. Further blocks that investigate how the police dealt with the siege itself will be withheld from the public "in the interests of the families".


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Treasurer Joe Hockey declared the siege to be a "terrorist incident" under the "Terrorism Insurance Act 2003". The Act means that insurance exclusions for terrorist incidents do not apply if such a declaration is made.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Scholars and social commentators have debated whether Monis was a terrorist and whether his actions could be classified as an act of terrorism. There is doubt as to whether or not Monis fit the definition of a lone wolf terrorist.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Queensland University of Technology criminologist Mark Lauchs said it was important to not describe the siege as a "terrorist attack". Lauchs said Monis was simply a deranged person running a hostage situation. "This incident was not about religion and neither was it a terrorist attack, but given that perception by the paraphernalia Monis used." The Australian prime minister said, "[Man Haron Monis] had a long history of violent crime, infatuation with extremism and mental instability...As the siege unfolded yesterday, he sought to cloak his actions with the symbolism of the ISIL death cult."


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Prof Greg Barton (from Deakin University) and Dr Clarke Jones (ANU) told the inquest that Monis was a loner and had mental health problems, and was desperate to attach himself to something. Clarke suggested that if the Rebels had accepted his membership then the siege might not have happened. Roger Shanahan from the Lowy Institute said that if Monis had followed ISIS direction he would have just killed everyone.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The chief of ASIO Duncan Lewis confirmed that he believed Monis to be a terrorist. However, former counter-terrorism adviser to the White House, Richard A. Clarke, said, "I don't think this was a lone wolf terrorist, I don't think this was a terrorist at all, I think this was someone who was committing suicide by police as a lot of people with mental problems do, and now, if they say they're a terrorist, if they say they're somehow associated with ISIS or Al Qaeda, it becomes a major event that shuts down the city and gets international attention. This was a person with a mental problem who tried to gain attention and succeeded, tried to shut down the city and succeeded, merely by putting up a flag that was something like the flag of ISIS."


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The difference between terrorism and terrorising acts was noted in one analysis as "enormously important"it added that in Monis's case, terrorism "was clearly an element, but he was coming to the end of his rope with a variety of legal processes; there was clearly some mental instability." One view was that his lack of ties to any movement did not preclude his being a terrorist as it is "an inclusive club". Another commentator said, "There can be also no doubt that his attack was a terrorist act, as defined under Australia's Criminal Code Act 1995" and that, "he was a terrorist, clearly influenced by IS".


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: One terrorism expert, Professor Greg Barton, described Monis's actions as those of a "lone wolf terrorist ... driven by a desire for attention and to be in the spotlight", and his use of the flag was described as "the only way" to instil fear on a global scale. Professor Michael Wesley, Director of the School of International, Political and Strategic Studies at the Australian National University said the attack "was very different from first-generation or second-generation terrorist attacksbut it was terrorism, and terrorism of a brutal and more unpredictable sort." Another view was that describing the gunman as a terrorist was misplaced and would only serve the interests of ISIL. The supervisor of terrorism and security analysis for Stratfor said that this hostage-incident exhibits many of the elements associated with grassroots terrorism. A criminologist said that the event "was not about religion and neither was it a terrorist attack but given that perception by the paraphernalia Monis used."


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Conversely, Yassir Morsi, a researcher at the Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding in Australia, suggested that "before he flew the black flag, Monis was just a desperate man with a violent past" and that "he was just another gunman. ... the symbol (flag) rewrote Monis's violent past and gave grammar to his attack."


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Monis had entered the cafe without an ISIS flag. ASIO's previous investigations had found no links between Monis and any terrorist group. When a News reporter met him before the crisis she thought Monis was "lost and confused" and "harmless". Habib said Monis was "sick and disturbed" and desperately seeking attention over his grievances with government officials that had nothing to do with terrorism.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: In 2016, Monis was cited as one of a number of recent violent attackers who were mentally disturbed and operated under the justification of Islamist ideas or slogans. Other examples include the as-of-yet unidentified perpetrator of the Munich knife attack and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the perpetrator of the 2014 shootings at Parliament Hill, Ottawa. According to psychologists and psychiatrists who study radicalisation, jihad propaganda and calls to kill infidels can push mentally-ill individuals to act, even in the absence of direct or personal contact with radical Islamists.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: In February 2017, United States President Donald Trump cited the Sydney siege as an example of what he claimed was deliberate underreporting of terrorist attacks by the media, notwithstanding that the event received "blanket coverage" in local and international news.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Following the Sydney siege inquest, in May 2017, the NSW Coroner Michael Barnes determined that "The siege was a terrorist incident."


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: During the siege, an Australian Army Tactical Assault Group East team at Holsworthy Barracks evaluated the floorplan of the cafe and gave advice to police. Mitchell McAlister, a former member of TAG East, questioned the police use of M4A1 carbines with 5.56 mm rounds over Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Katrina Dawson died from a fragment of a police bullet, and other hostages appear to have been hit by bullets that ricocheted off the concrete building. It was unclear why 22 shots were fired by police, of which 13 hit Monis. Police have been criticised for both the high powered weapons used and the number of shots fired.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: During the siege, no significant effort was made to negotiate with Monis, as would normally be expected in a hostage situation in order to build a relationship with a gunman and persuade them to surrender. Instead, Monis received no encouragement or assistance from trained police negotiators.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Help was offered by the Muslim community including the Grand Mufti and Mamdouh Habib who had known Monis personally. Habib offered to help negotiate or provide background information to the police. These offers were not taken up.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: It has been suggested that the police treatment of the siege as a terrorist attack may have led to errors such as making no attempt to negotiate with the gunman as would have been normal practice in other hostage situations. One commentator, Guy Rundle, questioned whether the police may have used a "crude rule" that "we don't negotiate with terrorists" that affected their procedures. It might also explain the choice of weapon in a small enclosure against a lone gunman. These factors may have directly led to the deaths of Johnson and Dawson.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: During the siege, police asked Muslims in Sydney to source an ISIL flag for Monis, before obtaining their own. The police later raided several houses of people contacted by Ms Kay who was attempting to find an ISIL flag. Ms Kay assumed that the phone calls had been monitored, and that the request had been solely to find out who she would contact, lowering trust among Muslims in the NSW police force.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The security forces have been criticised for not recognising that Monis was a threat, and for taking him off their watch list in 2008. This may have been because they overlooked key evidence, or it may have been because there was simply no evidence to collect. The federal/state joint review found that the relevant agencies' analysis had been reasonable.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: After the siege, the revelation that the new Bail Act had allowed Monis to be granted bail sparked calls to further tighten the law; however, a review had already been conducted in the wake of earlier controversial bail releases, with the new law set "to take effect next year" (that is, on 28 January 2015). Former director of public prosecutions in New South Wales, Nicholas Cowdery, said he was not sure that the amended law would have changed anything in Monis's case, saying that "There will always be, unfortunately, some exceptional events which laws and controls put in place before the event could not have prevented". Homicide detectives sent a letter to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) urging them to challenge the bail decision for Monis, but a commissioned officer did not pass it on to the DPP. Michael Esposito, writing for the Law Society of South Australia, noted that the shocking nature of the Sydney siege had the power to prompt reviews of bail laws across Australia.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Some commentators expressed concerns about immigration and citizenship processes. Monis's "confused agenda" meant that Amnesty International did not realise that he and Boroujerdim, who had sought help in 1997, were the same man until they went back through their records. In the absence of hard evidence, suggestions that Monis represented a growing trend of systemic failure, rather than being an aberration, were noted as dangerous to public confidence; to the separation of powers; to the idea of innocence till proven guilty and also to social cohesion by inviting suspicion of people from the Middle East.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: In the week after the siege, it was revealed that John Robertson, NSW Opposition leader, had sent a letter which passed on a request made by Monis, a constituent in his Blacktown electorate, to the Department of Family and Community Services in 2011. The letter was, according to Robertson, routine procedure on behalf of a constituent and written in support of Monis's request for a supervised visit with his children on Father's Day despite an apprehended violence order against him. The Department declined Monis's request. As pressure mounted on Robertson to resign as Leader of the Labor Party, and three months away from the 2015 state election, he stood aside on 23 December 2014.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Commentators considered Monis's history of domestic violence, with a family violence expert arguing that it should have been considered when bail was given. A columnist noted that while his behaviour highlighted an "epidemic" of violence towards women, the media focus remained on terrorism.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Historians of religion and politics also critically reviewed the role of violence committed in the name of religion.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Debate followed about the difficulty of managing a police operation in the presence of continuous global media coverage as well as the likely damage caused by the spread of rumour.<ref name="https://theconversation.com/how-rumours-about-the-sydney-siege-spread-on-social-media-35536"></ref> Particular criticism was levelled at Rupert Murdoch and News Corp for spreading false information as well as for insensitivity and "gross ethical violations". Commissioner Scipione and chair of the Australian Press Council, Professor Julian Disney released statements about the media coverage after the event. Beyond misinformation, concerns were raised regarding the presentation of crises as entertainment.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Four Corners aired a two-part broadcast, interviewing former hostages, and the families of deceased Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: A month after the siege, police, ambulance workers, firefighters and others were officially thanked at NSW Government House. Memorial plaques were placed inside the reopened Lindt café. A permanent memorial to the victims of the siege will incorporate the flowers from Martin Place, which are to be mulched and incorporated into its garden element. The memorial was opened in December, 2017.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The premiere of Jonathon Welch's choral piece "Street Requiem" in February 2015 was dedicated to the siege victims and to those who died in the "Charlie Hebdo" shooting in Paris.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Composer Lyle Chan, who resides less than a kilometre from the Lindt cafe, wrote two works influenced by the events. "Sea of Flowers" was premiered by conductor Alondra de la Parra and the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in May 2015. Chan's "Love Is Always Born (December)", with original words by Michael Leunig and 'Silent Night' in Arabic, was commissioned and premiered by the Song Company at concerts around the first anniversary of the events.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Dawson's family created the Katrina Dawson Foundation and scholarships to The Women's College, University of Sydney to provide financial assistance to young women for their university education. The first recipients started university in 2016.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: Senator Dean Smith, a homosexual Liberal Party member, changed his views on same-sex marriage in Australia due to Tori Johnson and his partner of 14 years. Smith later introduced a bill aimed at legalising same-sex marriage to the Senate, which became law.


title: Lindt Cafe siege

text: The Lindt Cafe closed in October 2021 due to lack of patronage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing construction work for the Sydney Metro.


title: Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure

text: He is best known as the first head of state of the Second Republic, after the collapse of the July Monarchy as a result of the French Revolution of 1848.


title: Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure

text: Born in Le Neubourg, Normandy, he was a lawyer at the "parlement" of Normandy when the French Revolution began. During the First Republic and the First Empire, he filled successive judicial offices at Louviers, Rouen and Évreux. He had adopted revolutionary principles, and in 1798 began his political life as a member of the French Directory's Council of Five Hundred.


title: Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure

text: In 1813 he became a member of the "Corps législatif" and, during the Hundred Days, was vice-president of the chamber of deputies. When the Seventh Coalition armies entered Paris, he drew up the declaration asserting the necessity of maintaining the principles of government that had been established at the Revolution. He was chosen as one of the commissioners to negotiate with the Coalition sovereigns.


title: Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure

text: From 1817 until 1849 (through the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy) he was, without interruption, a member of the chamber of deputies, and he acted consistently with the Liberal opposition, of which he was the virtual leader. For a few months in 1830 he held office as Minister of Justice, but, finding himself out of harmony with his colleagues, resigned before the end of the year and resumed his place in the opposition.


title: Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure

text: When the 1848 Revolution began, Dupont de l'Eure was made President of the provisional assembly, being its oldest member. On the same day, he was made President of the Provisional Government, becoming France's de facto Head of State. He can therefore be considered as France's first Presidential Head of State, though Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, later in the same year, was the first to formally bear the title of President of the French Republic. His prestige and popularity prevented the heterogeneous republican coalition from having to immediately agree upon a common leader. Due to his great age (upon entering office, he was just a few days short of his 81st birthday), Dupont de l'Eure effectively delegated part of his duties to Minister of Foreign Affairs Alphonse de Lamartine. On 4 May, he resigned in order to make way for the Executive Commission, which he declined to join. He supported Louis-Eugène Cavaignac against Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. In 1849, having failed to secure his re-election to the chamber, he retired from public life.


title: Jacques-Charles Dupont de l'Eure

text: His consistency in defending the cause of constitutional liberalism throughout the many changes of his times gained him the respect of many of his countrymen, who referred to Dupont de l'Eure as ""Aristides of the French tribune"".


title: Giraffidae

text: The Giraffidae are a family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids. This family, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, presently comprises only two extant genera, the giraffe (one or more species of "Giraffa", depending on taxonomic interpretation) and the okapi (the only known species of "Okapia"). Both are confined to sub-Saharan Africa: the giraffe to the open savannas, and the okapi to the dense rainforest of the Congo. The two genera look very different on first sight, but share a number of common features, including a long, dark-coloured tongue, lobed canine teeth, and horns covered in skin, called ossicones.


title: Giraffidae

text: The giraffids are ruminants of the clade Pecora. Other extant pecorans are the families Antilocapridae (pronghorns), Cervidae (deer), Moschidae (musk deer), and Bovidae (cattle, goats and sheep, wildebeests and allies, and antelopes). The exact interrelationships among the pecorans have been debated, mainly focusing on the placement of Giraffidae, but a recent large-scale ruminant genome sequencing study suggests Antilocapridae are the sister taxon to Giraffidae, as shown in the cladogram below.


title: Giraffidae

text: The ancestors of pronghorn diverged from the giraffids in the Early Miocene. This was in part of a relatively late mammal diversification following a climate change that transformed subtropical woodlands into open savannah grasslands.


title: Giraffidae

text: The fossil record of giraffids and their stem-relatives is quite intensive, with fossil of these taxa include Gelocidae, Palaeomerycidae, Prolibytheridae, and Climacoceratidae. It is thought the palaeomerycids is the ancestral group that given rise to the prolibytherids, climacoceratids and the giraffids, all three forming a clade of pecorans known as Giraffomorpha. The relationship between the climacoceratids and giraffids is supported by the presence of a bilobed canine, and have been postulated into two hypotheses. One is the climacoceratids were the ancestors of the sivatheres, as both groups were large, deer-like giraffoids with branching antler-like ossicones, while an extinct basal group of giraffoids, canthumerycines, evolved into the ancestors of Giraffidae. Another more commonly supported hypothesis is climacoceratids were merely the sister clade to giraffids, with sivatheres being either basal giraffids or descended from a lineage that also includes the okapi. While the current range of giraffids today is in Africa, the fossil record of the group has shown this family was once widespread throughout of Eurasia.


title: Giraffidae

text: Below is the phylogenetic relationships of giraffomorphs after Solounias (2007), Sánchez et al. (2015) and Ríos et al. (2017):


title: Giraffidae

text: Below is the total taxonomy of valid extant and fossil taxa (as well as junior synonyms which are listed in the brackets).


title: Giraffidae

text: The giraffe stands tall, with males taller than females. The giraffe and the okapi have characteristic long necks and long legs. Ossicones are present on males and females in the giraffe, but only on males in the okapi.


title: Giraffidae

text: Giraffids share many common features with other ruminants. They have cloven hooves and cannon bones, much like bovids, and a complex, four-chambered stomach. They have no upper incisors or upper canines, replacing them with a tough, horny pad. An especially long diastema is seen between the front and cheek teeth. The latter are selenodont, adapted for grinding up tough plant matter. Like most other ruminants, the dental formula for giraffids is . Giraffids have prehensile tongues (specially adapted for grasping).


title: Giraffidae

text: The extant giraffids, the forest-dwelling okapi and the savannah-living giraffe, have several features in common, including a pair of skin-covered horns, called ossicones, up to long (absent in female okapis); a long, black, prehensile tongue; lobed canine teeth; patterned coats acting as camouflage; and a back sloping towards the rear. The okapi's neck is long compared to most ruminants, but not nearly so long as the giraffe's. Male giraffes are the tallest of all mammals: their horns reach above the ground and their shoulder , whereas the okapi has a shoulder height of .


title: Giraffidae

text: The two extant genera are now confined to sub-Saharan Africa. The okapi is restricted to a small range in the northern rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the range of the giraffe is considerably larger, it once covered an area twice the present size — all parts of Africa that could offer an arid and dry landscape furnished with trees.


title: Giraffidae

text: The social structure and behavior is markedly different in okapis and giraffes, but although little is known of the okapi's behavior in the wild, a few things are known to be present in both species:


title: Giraffidae

text: Giraffes are sociable, whereas okapis live mainly solitary lives. Giraffes temporarily form herds of up to 20 individuals; these herds can be mixed or uniform groups of males and females, young and adults. Okapis are normally seen in mother-offspring pairs, although they occasionally gather around a prime food source. Giraffe are not territorial, but have ranges that can dramatically vary between —  — depending on food availability, whereas okapis have individual ranges about in size.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: The Thing is a 2002 third-person shooter survival horror video game developed by Computer Artworks and co-published by Vivendi Universal Games under their Black Label Games publishing label and Konami. It was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox, and PlayStation 2. GameCube and Game Boy Advance versions were also planned, but both were cancelled early in development.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Set as a sequel to John Carpenter's 1982 film of the same name, the story focuses on Captain Blake, a member of a U.S. Special Forces team sent to the Antarctic outpost featured in the film to determine what has happened to the research team. The game was endorsed by Carpenter, who has a cameo appearance in the game.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: "The Thing" was a commercial success; selling over one million units worldwide across all platforms, and received generally positive reviews. A sequel was in the early stages of development, but was canceled when Computer Artworks went into receivership in 2003.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: The basic gameplay in "The Thing" is that of a traditional third-person shooter; the player character, Blake, can run and shoot, strafe, crouch, interact with the environment, interact with NPCs and use items, such as flashlights, fire extinguishers or flares. The player also has the option to enter first-person mode for more accurate targeting during combat. When in first-person mode, however, the character cannot move, except to side-step a little to the left and right. Weaponry includes pistols, grenades, sniper rifles, flamethrowers, shotguns, submachine guns, assault rifles, grenade launchers and fixed heavy machine guns. Other items featured in the game are health packs, explosives, ammunition, portable blood test-kits and adrenaline injections.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Enemies come in three main varieties. "Scuttlers" are small Things formed from the limbs and appendages of infected personnel. They are fast, but weak, and can be killed simply by shooting. "Walkers" are larger than scuttlers, and much stronger. To kill them, the player must weaken them using gunfire before then using the flamethrower, as only fire can completely kill them. Bosses are larger and much more powerful than Walkers, and although each one requires a specific strategy to defeat, the principle is the same; weaken it with gunfire before burning it.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: One of the main features of "The Thing"s gameplay is the inclusion of multiple NPCs who join Blake at various points throughout the game. At any one time, the player can control up to four characters; Blake and three NPCs. There are three types of NPC in the game; engineers, soldiers and medics. Engineers can repair fuse boxes, which control locked doors, computers and save points. Soldiers have more health, and are better shots than engineers or medics. They are thus more suited to combat. Medics are capable of healing both Blake and any other injured NPCs, and carry unlimited health packs. The player can issue basic commands to each NPC, such as ordering them to follow Blake, ordering them to remain where they are, ordering them to give Blake their weapon, and, in the case of engineers, ordering them to fix a fuse box.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: NPC AI is determined primarily by the "Fear/trust system". The trust system determines whether the NPCs will follow Blake's orders and join him in combat. To do so, the player must ensure the NPC trusts Blake, and does not suspect him of being a Thing. NPCs have four levels of trust; red, amber, green and 100%. Red means they are convinced Blake is a Thing and will attack him. Amber means they are not sure if he is a Thing, and although they won't attack him, they won't follow his orders. Green means they trust him and will follow his orders. 100% means they have complete faith in him, will follow his orders, and even if he attacks another NPC, they will support him. To gain the trust of NPCs, Blake can give them weapons and ammo, heal them, put himself at risk to protect them, or use a blood test kit on himself to prove he is not a Thing. Actions which deplete trust include accidentally shooting teammates, taking away teammate's weapons or ammo, or pointing a weapon at them for a sustained period of time to force them to do something.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: The fear system dictates how scared a given NPC is. There are three levels of fear; normal, scared and "Crack-up". When an NPC enters "Crack-up" mode, Blake has only a limited amount of time to reduce their fear level, or the NPC will kill themselves, attack Blake and other NPCs, attack the environment, or die of a heart attack. Each NPC responds differently to different surroundings; for example, medics tend to scare easier than soldiers. Generally, however, fear increases when entering rooms covered in blood, entering dark locations, finding particularly disfigured corpses, being attacked by multiple enemies, and hearing enemies but not being able to see them. When an NPC is scared, it affects their performance; soldiers become less accurate, engineers take longer to repair fuse boxes and medics don't heal characters as quickly. Blake can reduce fear by giving NPCs adrenaline, topping up their ammo, moving away from particular locations, or successfully defeating enemies.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: The game also features an infection system, which determines whether or not an NPC is infected by the Thing. Although most NPCs are scripted to transform into a Thing at specific points in the game, they can also be infected at any time prior to this. When the team comes under attack by enemies, the possibility of infection is based upon a probability system whereby any teammate who comes into direct contact with an enemy can be infected. Although infection does not alter their immediate behavior, it will result in them turning into a walker-Thing after a set period of time, at which point they will attack the team.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: The Windows PC port features patches that fix issues present on the consoles. Furthermore, "Patch 1.2 adds a very handy mouse-look mode, which makes the game play more like a modern PC game."


title: The Thing (video game)

text: The game begins at U.S. Outpost 31 in Antarctica, a short time after the events of the film. Two teams of U.S. Special Forces have arrived to investigate the U.S. camp and the nearby Norwegian camp. Captain J.F. Blake (voiced by Per Solli) is the leader of Bravo Team, who are investigating the U.S. camp, whilst Alpha Team, under the command of Captain Pierce, investigate the Norwegian camp. Both teams are under the overall command of Colonel Whitley (William B. Davis), who is in constant communication via radio. Whilst investigating Outpost 31, Bravo Team soon discover the small spacecraft made by the Blair-Thing and a tape recorder with a message from R.J. MacReady, describing how nobody trusts anybody anymore. They then find information detailing how the base has been infiltrated by an extraterrestrial lifeform that is capable of imitating the physical appearance and characteristics of any living organism it assimilates. They also find the body of Childs, one of the two survivors at the end of the film, who has died from hypothermia. The film's other survivor, MacReady, is nowhere to be found. Under orders from Whitley, Bravo Team set up C-4 explosives throughout the facility, which are detonated remotely, destroying the outpost.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Whilst the rest of Bravo Team are airlifted to safety, Blake heads to the Norwegian camp to locate and reinforce Alpha Team, with whom contact has been lost. He soon learns they have been attacked and scattered by a horde of "scuttlers"; small limbs and appendages of much larger Things. Eventually Blake finds Pierce. However, he has become paranoid, believing everyone to be infected and demanding Blake agrees to a blood test to prove he is still human. Blake does so, and he and Pierce set out to find a way to reestablish communication with Whitley. However, they are soon separated, and with no other choice, Blake continues on, finding the radio room, but discovering someone has stolen the radio and fled into a nearby warehouse.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: En route to the warehouse, Blake encounters Pierce in an observatory. However, he is infected, and rather than allow himself to turn into a Thing, Pierce shoots himself in the head. Blake continues to pursue the man with the radio, eventually discovering that he is a Thing. Blake kills him, and takes the radio. Moving on, he enters the "Pyron" sub-facility beneath the Norwegian base, learning of a company called Gen-Inc., who have installed a research team under the command of Dr. Sean Faraday (John Carpenter). Gen-Inc. had been conducting biological experiments on the Things when their team was infected, and now only a few survivors remain within the facility. Blake rescues Faraday and attempts to leave. However, he is prevented from doing so by Whitley, who shoots him with a tranquillizer gun, and reveals to Faraday that he has infected himself with the Thing gene, claiming it to be controllable, something of which he is living proof, and therefore demonstrating its capability as a weapon. When Faraday attempts to eradicate the Thing virus, Whitley kills him.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Blake awakens in the now abandoned "Strata" research facility, and learns that his cells have a unique resistance to infection by the Thing virus. After escaping his confinement, he unearths a government conspiracy whereby Gen-Inc. isolated a microbiological form of the Thing called the "Cloud virus", which was intended for use in biological warfare. However, the Thing infected everyone at the facility. Blake learns that Whitley was in charge of the entire operation, and has injected himself with a strain of the virus known as "Cloud Virus B4" in an attempt to cure his terminal cancer.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Blake fights his way through the facility, battling numerous black ops under Whitley's command, as well as many Things. Learning that Whitley plans to distribute the Thing virus around the world using a fleet of airplanes, he is able to destroy them before they take off. Eventually, Blake confronts Whitley himself. He sets him on fire, but Whitely is unhurt. He explains that an airlift team is on its way and when it arrives, he will begin global exposure. Whitley flees further into the base, pursued by Blake. At the partly excavated site of the original Thing's spaceship, Whitley transforms into a massive Thing creature. Blake encounters a helicopter pilot, who helps him defeat the Whitley-Thing. As the helicopter flies away from the base, the pilot reveals himself to be R.J. MacReady.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: In 2000, when Universal Interactive began looking through Universal Studios' back-catalogue of feature films with potential for adaptation as video game franchises, they quickly decided one of the most lucrative such intellectual properties was the 1982 film directed by John Carpenter, "The Thing". The film was based on the 1938 John W. Campbell short story "Who Goes There?", which had already been filmed by Howard Hawks in 1951 as "The Thing from Another World". Carpenter's version was the most widely known iteration of the story, however, and the ambiguous ending to the film was seen as particularly attractive in terms of a video game which could explore what happens "after" the events of the film. Universal and Konami announced the game on September 20, 2000, before development had begun, confirming it would not be an adaptation of the film, but a sequel. They also revealed the game would be released for "next generation consoles", of which only the Xbox was initially confirmed, as well as the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance, the Handheld version was rumored to support with the device (although both versions were quietly canceled early in production).


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Based upon Computer Artworks' 2000 video game "Evolva", Universal invited them to make a pitch for the game. For the pitch, Computer Artworks reskinned a level from "Evolva" with an Antarctic theme and a Thing-like creature as a boss fight. The pitch impressed Universal sufficiently, and the deal was signed. According to the game's director, William Latham, "Universal were very good to work with. They told us to come up with original ideas. It wasn't like a "Harry Potter" license. There weren't strict guidelines, as long as we retained the quality of the original work." Drawing inspiration from "Aliens", the 1956 version of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "Half-Life" and Area 51 conspiracy theories, Computer Artworks began work on the game in November 2000. On January 16, they announced the game would also be released for Windows, with a release date slated for mid-2002. The game was first shown at Universal Interactive's "Gamer's Day" on August 13, where it was confirmed it would also be coming to PlayStation 2. A non-playable demo was shown, and a Q&A session was held with the developers. Universal revealed details of the fear/trust and infection systems, which they said would form an integral aspect of the basic gameplay.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: A playable demo for the PlayStation 2 was released on March 25, 2002. In an interview with GameSpot on April 1, Universal Interactive producer Peter Wanat explained "the trust-fear dynamic was born out of the film and the simple fact that we needed to give the main character NPCs to interact with. That whole not knowing who is human and who is "the thing" was a big part of the movie and worked for the game really well." Wanat cited games such as "Resident Evil", "Silent Hill", "Grand Theft Auto III", and "Max Payne" as influences. However, he stated;


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Speaking in 2014, Latham reiterated Wanat's claims that the fear/trust and infection systems came from a desire to reproduce a strong element from the film;


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Originally the game was to be more open world based, with the possibility that each NPC could turn into a Thing at any moment completely randomized. Curtis also hoped the player could get to the end of the game with many, perhaps all, of the NPCs still alive. However, this kind of open-endedness proved impossible to implement, with Curtis, pointing out "It was of course very naïve as it caused huge problems with the squad command menu and dynamically balancing the encounters and resources required for the NPC." Ultimately, NPC characters were scripted to change into Things at specific points, irrespective of the player's actions. This led to a much criticized aspect of the game; the player can test an NPC to find he is human only for him to change into a Thing mere seconds later. Programmer Diarmid Campbell explains;


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Similarly, Latham states "We had to scale it back. There were a few cheats to make it entertaining. We tried to mimic human behavior, but at the end of the day it didn't matter too much how you treated your teammates."


title: The Thing (video game)

text: "The Thing" also features a vocal ending theme "After Me", performed by Memphis-based Nu metal band Saliva, from its second studio album Every Six Seconds.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: In August 2002, Vivendi Universal formed a new publishing division called Black Label Games; a label which Ken Cron (Vivendi Universal Games CEO) stated "will focus on delivering innovative, high-quality titles to satisfy the growing consumer appetite for increasingly sophisticated content." The game transitioned from Universal Interactive over to the new label.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: "The Thing" received "generally favorable reviews" on all three platforms; the PlayStation 2 version holds an aggregate score of 78 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on twenty-seven reviews; the Xbox version a 78 out of 100, based on twenty-one reviews; and the PC version a 77 out of 100, based on nineteen reviews.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: Eurogamer's Kristan Reed scored the PlayStation 2 version a 5 out of 10, arguing of the trust/fear system "It is nowhere near as much of a neat gameplay innovation as the hype had some people believe [...] As a squad based game it would work far better if you ever had to care a great deal for anyone's survival. As it is, most of the team seem to split off once a level's over (or turn into aliens at pre-determined moments during it), so you're left merely using each NPC as a means of progression." He was also critical of the graphics, which he argued "look old school, with bad texturing, uninteresting particle effects, and vanilla architecture." He concluded, "If you can pick up "The Thing" cheap you won't be too disappointed; it's by no means a bad game, but it's all the more disappointing thanks to the fact that it could and should have been brilliant."


title: The Thing (video game)

text: GameSpy's Tom Chick scored the PC version a 3 out of 5, writing ""The Thing" starts out strong, but it's the sort of game you don't have to feel bad about not finishing. Of course, you're paying for a full game, so if dollar value is your main criteria, you might be better off renting John Carpenter's movie, reading the original short story, and then having a laugh at the walking carrot in the 1951 version." Tom Ham scored both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions a 4 out of 5, writing "not only is the game a solid action-adventure frenzy, it also manages to tell a tale that is truly chilling. Combined with topnotch graphics, incredible use of sound, and a very cool trust/fear interface, "The Thing" manages to do what so many movie licensed games have failed to do -- succeed."


title: The Thing (video game)

text: GameSpot's Erik Wolpaw scored the PC version a 7.7 out of 10, and although he was very critical of the trust/fear system and the controls, he concluded ""The Thing" is kind of short, it's not especially effective at making you feel afraid, its most intriguing gameplay elements are somewhat extraneous, and it suffers from a wonky control scheme. Yet, thanks to some high production values and consistently interesting action scenes, "The Thing" rises above these flaws. It could have been great, but in light of the checkered history of movie-licensed games, being good at all is a pretty impressive achievement." Ryan MacDonald scored the PlayStation 2 version an 8.4 out of 10, writing "When you look at everything the game offers in terms of its gameplay, presentation, and story, it's hard not to appreciate "The Thing" whether you're a fan of the film it's based on or just a fan of the survival horror genre in general." He also scored the Xbox version an 8.4 out of 10, calling it "The best of the three, combining sharp graphics similar to those found in the PC version with the superior console-style control found in the PlayStation 2 version." "GameSpot" later named "The Thing" the second-best Xbox game of September 2002.


title: The Thing (video game)

text: IGN's Douglass C. Perry scored the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions an 8.3 out of 10. Although he was critical of the scripted nature of the infection system, he concluded "The deeper you play, the more satisfying and challenging it becomes, and the more it draws you in. "The Thing" is well-paced, designed with an excellent variety of levels [...] Everything is consistent with the movie, the theme of which has been handled with exquisite care and thought. With the exception of the blood test goofs and the rather thin storyline, "The Thing" warrants your time and money." Steve Polak scored the PC version an 8.5 out of 10, writing ""The Thing" is, for the most part, an immersive and enjoyable game. The visuals and sound are top-notch and the sense of desperation you feel when you are stuck outside and about to succumb to the elements or being hunted by packs of the foul creatures is very real. The squad-based elements and the way you keep your men from losing their minds also adds to the depth of the play experience."


title: The Thing (video game)

text: The game was a commercial success, selling over one million units worldwide. At the 2003 Game Developers Conference, "The Thing" won the "Game Innovation Spotlight" award. It was nominated for "GameSpot"s annual "Best Action Adventure Game on Xbox" award, which went to "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell".


title: The Thing (video game)

text: A sequel went into development after the first game proved a critical and commercial success, but it was canceled when Computer Artworks went into receivership in October 2003. According to Diarmid Campbell, "We had the contract in place to make the sequel and were pretty excited about it. We had a very cool prototype of 'dynamic infection' and some really imaginative thing 'burst-outs'. I particularly liked the one where the person would split in half and their top half would jump to the ceiling and start swinging around like an orangutan with his intestines turned into tentacles." However, the project never developed beyond the proof of concept stage, with Computer Artworks producing some concept art, showing locations and enemies, and two short demo videos, but nothing else.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Republicanism in Australia is a movement to change Australia's system of government from a constitutional parliamentary monarchy to a republic, replacing the monarch of Australia (currently Charles III) with a president. Republicanism was first espoused in Australia before Federation in 1901. After a period of decline after Federation, the movement again became prominent at the end of the 20th century after successive legal and socio-cultural changes loosened Australia's ties with the United Kingdom.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Politically, republicanism is officially supported by the Labor Party and the Greens, and is also supported by some Liberal Party members of the Australian parliament. There has been an Assistant Minister for the Republic since June 2022. Australian voters rejected a proposal to establish a republic with a parliamentary appointed head of state in a referendum held in 1999. This may have been mainly due to the fact that many on the "Yes" side voted "No" at the referendum in rejection of the proposed system of a parliamentary appointed head of state rather than being elected by the people. This was despite polls showing a majority of Australians supported the idea of a republic at the time.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In his journal "The Currency Lad", first published in Sydney in 1832, pastoralist and politician Horatio Wills was the first person to openly espouse Australian republicanism. Born to a convict father, Wills was devoted to the emancipist cause and promoted the interests of "currency lads and lasses" (Australian-born Europeans).


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Some leaders and participants of the revolt at the Eureka Stockade in 1854 held republican views and the incident has been used to encourage republicanism in subsequent years, with the Eureka Flag appearing in connection with some republican groups. The Australian Republican Association (ARA) was founded in response to the Eureka Stockade, advocating the abolition of governors and their titles, the revision of the penal code, payment of members of parliament, the nationalisation of land and an independent federal Australian republic outside of the British Empire. David Flint, the national convener of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, notes that a movement emerged in favour of a "White Australia" policy; however British authorities in Whitehall were opposed to segregational laws. He suggests that to circumvent Westminster, those in favour of the discriminatory policies backed the proposed secession from the Empire as a republic. One attendee of the ARA meetings was the Australian-born poet Henry Lawson, who wrote his first poem, entitled "A Song of the Republic", in "The Republican" journal.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: At the Australian Federation Convention, which produced the first draft that was to become the Australian constitution 1891, a former Premier of New South Wales, George Dibbs, described as the "inevitable destiny of the people of this great country" the establishment of "the Republic of Australia". The fervour of republicanism tailed off in the 1890s as the labour movement became concerned with the Federation of Australia. The republican movement dwindled further during and after World War I. Emotionally, patriotic support for the war effort went hand in hand with a renewal of loyalty to the monarchy. "The Bulletin" abandoned republicanism and became a conservative, Empire loyalist paper. The Returned and Services League formed in 1916 and became an important bastion of monarchist sentiment.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The conservative parties were fervently monarchist and although the Labor Party campaigned for greater Australian independence within the Empire and generally supported the appointment of Australians as governor-general, it did not question the monarchy itself. Under the Labor government of John Curtin, a member of the Royal Family, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, was appointed governor-general during World War II. The royal tour of Queen Elizabeth II in 1954 saw a reported 7 million Australians (out of a total population of 9 million) out to see her.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The Whitlam government ended in 1975 with a constitutional crisis in which Governor-General John Kerr dismissed Whitlam's ministry and appointed Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser as prime minister. The incident raised questions about the value of maintaining a supposedly "symbolic" office that still possessed many key constitutional powers and what an Australian president with the same reserve powers would do in a similar situation. Correspondence between Kerr and Martin Charteris, the Queen's private secretary, were declassified by the Australian National Archives in 2020 and show that Kerr did not inform the palace ahead of time of his decision to dismiss the prime minister. They do reveal however, that Kerr sought advice from the palace about his constitutional obligations and concerns about a "race to the palace" should Whitlam attempt to advise the queen to dismiss the governor general before the governor general dismissed Whitlam.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: References to the monarchy were removed from various institutions through the late 1980s and 1990s. For example, in 1993, the Oath of Citizenship, which included an assertion of allegiance to the Australian monarch, was replaced by a pledge to be loyal to "Australia and its people". Earlier, in 1990, the formula of enactment for the Parliament of Australia was changed from "Be it enacted by the Queen, and the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia as follows" to "The Parliament of Australia enacts".


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Barristers in New South Wales (from 1993), Queensland (from 1994), ACT (from 1995), Victoria (from 2000), Western Australia (from 2001), Tasmania (from 2005), Northern Territory (from 2007), Commonwealth (from March 2007) and South Australia (from 2008) were no longer appointed Queen's Counsel (QC), but as Senior Counsel (SC). These changes were criticised by Justice Michael Kirby and other monarchists as moves to a "republic by stealth". However beginning with Queensland in 2013 and then followed by Victoria and the Commonwealth in 2014, the title of Queen's Counsel (QC) has again been conferred. Currently South Australia and New South Wales are discussing the reintroduction.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: All Australian senators and members of the House of Representatives continue to swear "to be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty" before taking their seats in parliament. As a part of the constitution, any changes to this oath could only be approved by a referendum.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The Australian Labor Party (ALP) first made republicanism its official policy in 1991, with then Prime Minister Bob Hawke describing a republic as "inevitable". Following the ALP decision, the Australian Republican Movement, the leading republican advocacy group, was born. Hawke's successor, Paul Keating, pursued the republican agenda much more actively than Hawke and established the Republic Advisory Committee to produce an options paper on issues relating to the possible transition to a republic to take effect on the centenary of Federation: 1 January 2001. The committee produced its report in April 1993 and in it argued that "a republic is achievable without threatening Australia's cherished democratic institutions."


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In response to the report, Keating promised a referendum on the establishment of a republic, replacing the governor-general with a president, and removing references to the Australian sovereign. The president was to be nominated by the prime minister and appointed by a two-thirds majority in a joint sitting of the Senate and House of Representatives. The referendum was to be held either in 1998 or 1999. However, Keating's party lost the 1996 federal election in a landslide and he was replaced by John Howard, a monarchist, as prime minister.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: With the change in government in 1996, Prime Minister John Howard proceeded with an alternative policy of holding a constitutional convention. This was held over two weeks in February 1998 at Old Parliament House. Half of the 152 delegates were elected and half were appointed by the federal and state governments. Convention delegates were asked whether or not Australia should become a republic and which model for a republic is preferred. At the opening of the convention, Howard stated that if the convention could not decide on a model to be put to a referendum, then plebiscites would be held on the model preferred by the Australian public.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: At the convention, a republic gained majority support (89 votes to 52 with 11 abstentions), but the question of what model for a republic should be put to the people at a referendum produced deep divisions among republicans. Four republican models were debated: two involving direct election of the head of state; one involving appointment on the advice of the prime minister (the McGarvie Model); and one involving appointment by a two-thirds majority of parliament (the bi-partisan appointment model).


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The latter was eventually successful at the convention, even though it only obtained a majority because of 22 abstentions in the final vote (57 against delegates voted against the model and 73 voted for, three votes short of an actual majority of delegates). A number of those who abstained were republicans who supported direct election (such as Ted Mack, Phil Cleary, Clem Jones, and Andrew Gunter), thereby allowing the bi-partisan model to succeed. They reasoned that the model would be defeated at a referendum and a second referendum called with direct election as the model.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The convention also made recommendations about a preamble to the constitution and a proposed preamble was also put to referendum.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: According to critics, the two-week timeline and quasi-democratic composition of the convention is evidence of an attempt by John Howard to frustrate the republican cause, a claim John Howard adamantly rejects.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The republic referendum was held on 6 November 1999, after a national advertising campaign and the distribution of 12.9 million 'Yes/No' case pamphlets. It comprised two questions: The first asked whether Australia should become a republic in which the governor-general and monarch would be replaced by one office, the President of the Commonwealth of Australia, the occupant elected by a two-thirds vote of the Australian parliament for a fixed term. The second question, generally deemed to be far less important politically, asked whether Australia should alter the constitution to insert a preamble. Neither of the amendments passed, with 55% of all electors and all states voting 'no' to the proposed amendment; it was not carried in any state. The preamble referendum question was also defeated, with a Yes vote of only 39 per cent.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Many opinions were put forward for the defeat, some relating to perceived difficulties with the parliamentary appointment model, others relating to the lack of public engagement or that most Australians were simply happy to keep the status quo. Some republicans voted no because they did not agree with provisions such as the president being instantly dismissible by the prime minister.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: On 26 June 2003, the Senate referred an inquiry into an Australian republic to the Senate Legal and Constitutional References Committee. During 2004, the committee reviewed 730 submissions and conducted hearings in all state capitals. The committee tabled its report, called "Road to a Republic", on 31 August 2004. The report examined the contest between minimalist and direct-election models and gave attention to hybrid models such as the electoral college model, the constitutional council model, and models having both an elected president and a governor-general.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The bi-partisan recommendations of committee supported educational initiatives and holding a series of plebiscites to allow the public to choose which model they preferred, prior to a final draft and referendum, along the lines of plebiscites proposed by John Howard at the 1998 constitutional convention.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Issues related to republicanism were raised by the March 2006 tour of Australia by Queen Elizabeth II. John Howard, still serving as prime minister, was then questioned by British journalists about the future of the Australian monarchy and there was debate about playing Australia's royal anthem, "God Save the Queen", during the opening of that year's Commonwealth Games, at which the monarch was present.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In July 2007, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd pledged to hold a new referendum on a republic if called on to form a government. However, he stated there was no fixed time frame for such a move and that the result of the 1999 referendum must be respected. After his party won the 2007 federal election and Rudd was appointed prime minister, he stated in April 2008 that a move to a republic was "not a top-order priority".


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In the lead-up to the 2010 federal election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard stated: "I believe that this nation should be a republic. I also believe that this nation has got a deep affection for Queen Elizabeth." She stated her belief that it would be appropriate for Australia to become a republic only once Queen Elizabeth II's reign ends.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In November 2013, Governor-General Quentin Bryce proclaimed her support for an Australian republic, stating in a speech: "perhaps, my friends, one day, one young girl or boy may even grow up to be our nation's first [sic] head of state." She had previously emphasised the importance of debate about the future of the Australian head of state and the evolution of the constitution.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In January 2015, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten called for a new push for a republic, stating: "Let us declare that our head of state should be one of us [sic]. Let us rally behind an Australian republic - a model that truly speaks for who we are, our modern identity, our place in our region and our world."


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In September 2015, former Australian Republican Movement chair Malcolm Turnbull became leader of the Liberal Party and was appointed prime minister. He stated he would not pursue "his dream" of Australia becoming a republic until after the end of the Queen's reign, instead focusing his efforts toward the economy. Upon meeting Elizabeth II in July 2017, Turnbull declared himself an "Elizabethan" and stated he did not believe a majority of Australians would support a republic before the end of her reign.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In December 2016, News.com.au found that a slim majority of members of both houses of parliament supported Australia becoming a republic (54% in the House and 53% in the Senate).


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In July 2017, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten revealed that, should the Labor Party be elected to a plurality in the 2019 federal election, they would legislate for a compulsory plebiscite on the issue. Should that plebiscite be supported by a majority of Australians, a second vote would be held, this time a referendum, asking the public for their support for a specific model of government. Labor lost the election.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Following Labor's victory in the 2022 federal election, the new Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, appointed Matt Thistlethwaite to the newly created office of Assistant Minister for the Republic, signalling a commitment to prepare Australia for a transition to republic following the next election. After the death of Elizabeth II, former prime minister Julia Gillard opined that Australia would inevitably choose to be a republic, but agreed with Albanese's timing on debate about the matter. When asked if he supported another referendum following the Queen's death, Albanese stated it was "not the time" to discuss a republic.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: A central argument made by Australian republicans is that, as Australia is an independent country, it is inappropriate and anomalous for Australia to share the person of its monarch with the United Kingdom. Republicans argue that the Australian monarch is not Australian and, as a national and resident of another country, cannot adequately represent Australia or Australian national aspirations, either to itself or to the rest of the world. Former Chief Justice Gerard Brennan stated that "so long as we retain the existing system our head of state is determined for us essentially by the parliament at Westminster". As Australian Republican Movement member Frank Cassidy put it in a speech on the issue: "In short, we want a resident for President."


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Some republicans associate the monarchy with British identity and argue that Australia has changed demographically and culturally, from being "British to our bootstraps", as prime minister Sir Robert Menzies once put it, to being less British in nature (albeit maintaining an "English Core"). Many Australian republicans are of non-British ancestry, and feel no connection to the "mother country" to speak of. According to an Australian government inquiry, arguments put forth by these republicans include the claim that the idea of one person being both monarch of Australia and of the United Kingdom is an anomaly.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: However, monarchists argue that immigrants who left unstable republics and have arrived in Australia since 1945 welcomed the social and political stability that they found in Australia under a constitutional monarchy. Further, some Aboriginal Australians, such as former Senator Neville Bonner, said a republican president would not "care one jot more for my people".


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: It has also been claimed monarchism and republicanism in Australia delineate historical and persistent sectarian tensions with, broadly speaking, Catholics more likely to be republicans and Protestants more likely to be monarchists. This developed out of a historical cleavage in 19th- and 20th-century Australia, in which republicans were predominantly of Irish Catholic background and loyalists were predominantly of British Protestant background. Whilst mass immigration since the Second World War has diluted this conflict, the Catholic–Protestant divide has been cited as a dynamic in the republic debate, particularly in relation to the referendum campaign in 1999. Nonetheless, others have stated that Catholic–Protestant tensions—at least in the sense of an Irish–British conflict—are at least forty years dead.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: It has also been claimed, however, that the Catholic–Protestant divide is intermingled with class issues. Republicanism in Australia has traditionally been supported most strongly by members of the urban working class with Irish Catholic backgrounds, whereas monarchism is a core value associated with urban and rural inhabitants of British Protestant heritage and the middle class, to the extent that there were calls in 1999 for 300,000 exceptionally enfranchised British subjects who were not Australian citizens to be barred from voting on the grounds that they would vote as a loyalist bloc in a tight referendum.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: From some perspectives, it has been argued that several characteristics of the monarchy are in conflict with modern Australian values. The hereditary nature of the monarchy is said to conflict with egalitarianism and dislike of inherited privilege. The laws of succession were, before amendment to them in 2015, held by some to be sexist and the links between the monarchy and the Church of England inconsistent with Australia's secular character. Under the Act of Settlement, the monarch is prohibited from being a Catholic. As it is constitutional, this Australian law over-rides anti-discrimination laws, which prohibit arrangements under which becoming a Catholic invalidates any legal rights.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: A typical proposal for an Australian republic provides for the King and governor-general to be replaced by a president or an executive federal council. There is much debate on the appointment or election process that would be used and what role such an office would have.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: An alternative minimalist approach to change provides for removing the sovereign and retaining the governor-general. The most notable model of this type is the McGarvie Model, while Copernican models replace the monarch with a directly elected figurehead. These Copernican models allow for regular and periodic elections for the office of head of state while limiting the reserve powers to the appointed governor-general only. A popularly elected head of state would have the same powers as the monarch, but he or she could not dismiss the prime minister. If this were to happen, it would be a first, as all other former Commonwealth realms have created presidencies upon becoming republics. Alternatively it has been proposed to abolish the roles of the governor-general and the monarchy and have their functions exercised by other constitutional officers such as the Speaker.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Another such model is the 50/50 model. This model is supported and created by Anthony Cianflone – LFAR Grassroots Member. A new President of Australia would become Head of State after being elected under a 50-50 model i.e. 50 per cent of the vote would be elected by the Australian people and 50 per cent of the vote would be elected by a joint sitting of the Australian Parliament. The President of Australia would play a similar ceremonial role to the Governor General. However under the 50-50 model the President would be more than just a ceremonial figure. The vision is for the Australian President to act as Australia's ‘Social Conscience and Moral Compass’. The President would have the capacity to influence and campaign on non-partisan issues such as Aboriginal Policy, Veterans’ Affairs, Education, Health, Environment, Human Rights, Multiculturalism, Domestic Violence, Homelessness, Poverty, Disabilities, Youth, Women, Arts, Tourism, Families, Older Australians and Sport. Whilst not having the power to veto bills, prior to providing Presidential assent, the Constitution could allow for the President to review and seek further clarification, and information on bills from the Parliament based on a ‘Social and Moral Conscience Charter’. The President's annual ‘State of the Nation’ Address’ to Parliament would provide one of the key formal mechanisms for the President to relay to Parliamentarians the priorities and expectation of Australians in relation to the non-partisan issues, and help improve the quality and consistency of policy reforms, parliamentary debates and community outcomes over the lifetime of different governments.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: A major problem for the popular election model has been that an election for a popularly elected head of state is likely to see the major political parties endorse partisan candidates. Gough Whitlam has observed, that this would almost guarantee the election of a politician as head of state. Some commentators have therefore sought to develop non-partisan popular electoral models. Michael Duffy, along with co-authors Steve Perryman and Anthony Cianflone, have floated the concept of 'tri-partisan endorsement' of a candidate by the three largest parties, who would then face a national popular vote. This idea, which is an evolution of a proposal by George Winterton made after the failed 1999 referendum, seeks to deliver a politically neutral head of state who will be a symbol of unity. It involves constitutional provisions that would bind the major political parties to such endorsement. Another proposal is the ‘Jones-Pickering Model’ developed by Benjamin Jones and Paul Pickering. Under this model, eight different candidates are nominated by two-thirds of a joint sitting of each of the six state and two territory parliaments and then each go on to a popular national vote.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Australians for Constitutional Monarchy and the Australian Monarchist League argue that no model is better than the present system and argue that the risk and difficulty of changing the constitution is best demonstrated by inability of republicans to back a definitive design.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: From its foundation until the 1999 referendum, the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) supported the bi-partisan appointment model, which would result in a President elected by the Parliament of Australia, with the powers currently held by the Governor-General. It is argued that the requirement of a two-thirds majority in a vote of both houses of parliament would result in a bi-partisan appointment, preventing a party politician from becoming president.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The ARM now supports a non-binding plebiscite to decide the model, followed by a binding referendum to amend the Constitution, reflecting the model chosen. Opponents of holding non-binding plebiscites include monarchist David Flint, who described this process as "inviting a vote of no confidence in one of the most successful constitutions in the world," and minimalist republican Greg Craven, who states "a multi-option plebiscite inevitably will produce a direct election model, precisely for the reason that such a process favours models with shallow surface appeal and multiple flaws. Equally inevitably, such a model would be doomed at referendum."


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: An additional proposal from academic Jesse John Fleay suggests a dual referendum on both the republic and the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, as outlined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: A far less prominent suggestion is that Australia should have a uniquely Australian monarch, who would reside permanently in Australia. The first known publication of this idea was in 1867. One suggestion has been that someone who was in line for Australian and British throne, but who is not expected to become monarch of the United Kingdom, would become monarch. There are thousands of people in line to the Australian throne. Some Canadian monarchists have suggested that all the Commonwealth realms, including Australia, should have their own resident monarchs. Australian status quo monarchist organisations have in general not supported this idea, but there is a website that does.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Polls and surveys generate different responses depending on the wording of the questions, mostly in regards the type of republic, and often appear contradictory.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In 2009, the Australian Electoral Survey that is conducted following all elections by the Australian National University has found that support for a republic has remained reasonably static since 1987 at around 60%, if the type of republic is not part of the question. The Electoral Survey also shows that support or opposition is relatively weak: 31% strongly support a republic while only 10% strongly oppose. Roy Morgan research has indicated that support for the monarchy has been supported by a majority of Australians since 2010, with support for a republic being in the majority between 1999 and 2004.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: An opinion poll held in November 2008 that separated the questions found support for a republic at 50% with 28% opposed. Asked how the president should be chosen if there were to be a republic, 80 percent said elected by the people, against 12 percent who favoured appointment by parliament. In October 2009, another poll by UMR found 59% support for a republic and 33% opposition. 73% supported direct election, versus 18% support for parliamentary appointment.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: On 29 August 2010, "The Sydney Morning Herald" published a poll produced by Neilson, asking multiple questions on the future of the monarchy:


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: A survey of 1,000 readers of "The Sun-Herald" and "The Sydney Morning Herald", published in "The Sydney Morning Herald" on 21 November 2010, found 68% of respondents were in favour of Australia becoming a republic, while 25% said it should not. More than half the respondents, 56%, said Australia should become a republic as soon as possible while 31% said it should happen after the Queen dies.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: However, an opinion poll conducted in 2011 saw a sharp decline in the support for an Australian republic. The polling conducted by the Morgan Poll in May 2011 showed the support for the monarchy was now 55% (up 17% since 1999), whereas the support for a republic was at 34% (down 20%). The turnaround in support for a republic has been called the "strange death of Australian republicanism".


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's "Vote Compass" during the 2013 Australian federal election found that 40.4% of respondents disagreed with the statement ""Australia should end the monarchy and become a republic"", whilst 38.1% agreed (23.1% strongly agreed) and 21.5% were neutral. Support for a republic was highest among those with a left-leaning political ideology. Younger people had the highest rate for those neutral towards the statement (27.8%) with their support for strongly agreed the lowest of all age groups at 17.1%. Support for a republic was highest in the Australian Capital Territory and Victoria and lowest in Queensland and Western Australia. More men than women said they support a republic.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In early 2014, a ReachTEL poll of 2,146 Australian conducted just after Australia Day showed only 39.4% supported a republic with 41.6% opposed. Lowest support was in the 65+ year cohort followed by the 18–34-year cohort. Geoff Gallop, the then chairman of the Australian Republican Movement, said higher support for a republic among Generation X and baby boomer voters could be explained by them having participated in the 1999 referendum and remembering the 1975 constitutional crisis.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In April 2014, a poll found that "support for an Australian republic has slumped to its lowest level in more than three decades"; namely, on the eve of the visit to Australia by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, and Prince George, 42% of those polled agreed with the statement that "Australia should become a republic", whereas 51% opposed.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: ARM commissioned a poll to be conducted by Essential Research from 5 to 8 November in 2015, asking "When Prince Charles becomes King of Australia, will you support or oppose replacing the British monarch with an Australian citizen as Australia's head of state?" Of the 1008 participants, 51% said they would prefer an Australian head of state to "King Charles", 27% opposed and 22% were undecided.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The Australian has polled the same question "Are you personally in favour or against Australia becoming a republic?" multiple times since 1999. After Australia Day 2016 they found 51% support. This level of support was similar to levels found between 1999 and 2003 by the same newspaper. Total against was 37% which was an increase over the rates polled in all previous polls other than 2011. Uncommitted at 12% was the lowest ever polled. However support for a republic was again lowest in the 18–34-year cohort.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: In November 2018, Newspoll found support for a republic had collapsed to 40%. It was also the first time in their polling since the 1999 referendum that support for the monarchy was higher than a republic. A July 2020 YouGov poll found 62% of Australians believed Australia's head of state should be an Australian, not Queen Elizabeth II. An Ipsos poll in January 2021 found support for a republic was 34%, the lowest since 1979.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The Liberal Party is a conservative and arguably a classical liberal party. It has no official position on the issue of monarchy, but both republicans and monarchists have held prominent positions within the party.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Proponents of republicanism in the Liberal Party include Malcolm Turnbull (a former leader, Prime Minister, and Australian Republican Movement leader), late former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, former opposition leader John Hewson, former Premiers Gladys Berejiklian (of NSW), Mike Baird (of NSW) and Jeff Kennett (of Victoria), former deputy leader Julie Bishop, and former federal Treasurers Joe Hockey and Peter Costello.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Supporters of the status quo include former Prime Ministers Scott Morrison, Tony Abbott (who led Australians for Constitutional Monarchy from 1992 to 1994), John Howard (whose government oversaw the 1999 referendum), and former opposition leaders Alexander Downer and Brendan Nelson.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: The National Party officially supports the status quo, but there have been some republicans within the party, such as former leader Tim Fischer.


title: Republicanism in Australia

text: Under then Prime Minister John Howard, a monarchist, the government initiated a process to settle the republican debate, involving a constitutional convention and a referendum. Howard says the matter was resolved by the failure of the referendum.