At the time, the convention seemed a glorious moment for Australian republicanism. An array of Australia's most eminent statespeople and jurists was in attendance, supplemented by a sizeable contingent of celebrities and ratbags. (My own invitation went astray owing to a tragic postal mix-up.) Republican delegates heavily outnumbered zero-change advocates — a fair reflection of public opinion at the time. Inevitably, the convention reached an in-principle agreement that the republic question should be put to a referendum. 

But after that fleeting triumph, republican delegates had to thrash out the ugly specifics of the matter. What model of republic would Australians get to vote on? The dominant faction of republican delegates favoured a so-called "minimalist" model. Australians, they reckoned, wanted an Australian head of state chosen on merit, rather than by an accident of birth. Beyond that, the minimalists didn't think the constitution should be tinkered with. They rejected the idea of a popularly-elected president: they thought such a radical change to the current system would scare off potential support at the referendum. Instead they wanted a ceremonial president who would resemble the familiar figure of the governor-general, minus the latter's ties with the crown. This figurehead president would be selected by the prime minister and approved by a two-thirds majority of parliament, after write-in nominations from the public had been whittled down (goodbye President Shane Warne) by a committee. 

Leftie delegates, naturally, scorned such moderation. They wanted a president directly elected by the people. They assailed the minimalist model as elitist and undemocratic. But the radicals' model, on inspection, was not without drawbacks of its own. It raised questions of authority, for a start. In a parliamentary system, not even the prime minister can claim to have been directly elected by the people. Wouldn't it be superfluous, if not a bit risky, to grant such a mandate to a figurehead president? Nobody, or nobody sane, wanted an American-style president with executive powers. So how crucial was it, really, that a ceremonial president should be elected by popular vote? 

Well, not that crucial, according to the bulk of republican delegates. The convention voted in favour of the minimalist option, which therefore became the proposal put to the referendum. But the radical republicans, with a few exceptions, conspicuously failed to take this defeat on the chin. When the referendum debate got going, they joined forces with the monarchists, and made a noisy and almost certainly decisive contribution to the "No" campaign. So zealous was their republicanism that they preferred no republic at all — at least in the short term — to the imperfect republic on offer.