SYDNEY -- A smiling, articulate Australian schoolgirl standing before an audience of 7,000 of Australia's top dignitaries . . . it was a grand sight, worthy of this young nation's first 100 years of democratic government.
Another 15-year-old might have been intimidated. Not every schoolgirl, a republican-minded one at that, has the nerve to declare to her monarchist prime minister and the queen's representative, "I hope that one day our head of state is one of us, lives among us, and is determined by the Australian people."
It was that kind of day. Everyone was in celebratory mood last week. Not just every Canberra politician, but the heads of all civic and commercial bodies were in Melbourne, state capital of Victoria, for the centenary of the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia.