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The Australian Republican Movement was founded in July 1991. Its first chairman was the novelist Thomas Keneally, with other founding members including the lawyer Malcolm Turnbull, the former Australian cricket captain, Ian Chappell, and the film director Fred Schepsi.
It was founded as a non-partisan group advocating the constitutional change to a republic, following the Australian Labor Party's adoption of republicanism as its policy.
Although opinion polls showed that most Australians favoured becoming a republic, divisions emerged in the Movement between those who favoured indirect election of the President by Parliament, and those who favoured direct election by the people. This led to Australian voters rejecting the change to a specific form of republic in the 1999 referendum, although republicanism remains an issue.
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