Monarchy or republic?

Channelnewsasia.com:

"'I don't want to get into a debate about whether we should be a republic, that's beside the point,' Howard told ABC radio."

Is it? To be honest, I think it's something we need to discuss as a nation. Given we seem to bypass the issues which concern our nation by regular unilateral decisions, I should have imagined a manarchy might be in order at the moment, but our own monarchy. We could be a country which turns itself into a monarchy. Now, whom shall we deem royal enough to be our royal family? Dame Edna is obviously well connected. The Hutt River Porvince has a family with thirty years experience. Queen Mary could obviously lend us a hand in setting this up. Do you think we should build the palace in Canberra or should we go for the one of our beautiful hills areas in NSW? We could have dukes, duchesses...fancy balls and parades. I was so disappointed when Charles and Camilla overlooked posting that wedding invitation they had written out for me. I have had to put my crown away in the cupboard again, so it would be awfully thrilling to know I could dust it off on a regular basis and jangle the diamonds from time to time. Yes, I think our own monarchy. It would be awfully civilised. Republics are rather passé and far too common.