$611.99

Call me naive, but I always thought writers cannot be bought. Journalists may come at a price. I consider it a possibility that you can ask a journalist to write a biased report, and you may get, what you wanted if the price was right. But I find it hard to believe, that you could demand from a writer to fabricate an essay with a fixed tendency. Well, obviously republicans can. And the pric(z)e is the extraordinary sum of $611.99.

In case you wanted to participate in the “Republican Short Story Competition” your entry was “required to portray an Australian republican future in a positive light”.

Brave new world, where criticism will only be allowed if you followed part two of the rules and “demonstrate the absurdity of a hereditary monarch as the Australian Head of State in twenty-first century Australian society”.

And to participate in this “republican fiction” you had to pay the entry fee of $11.99 (incl GST). “Entry fees are to be paid by money order or cheque to Australian Republican Movement.” Boy, they must be desperate for some dollars more.

Ohe iam satis!