Our National Committee
Esther Anatolitis, Co-Chair
Esther Anatolitis is one of Australia’s leading advocates for the arts and active civic engagement. She is Adjunct Industry Professor at RMIT, teaches Cultural Policy & Practice at NIDA, and serves the Governing Council of the National Museum of Australia. Her strategic consultancy Test Pattern works across Australia on civic and cultural strategy, policy and precincts. For over twenty years Esther has led creative and media organisations and served many boards and policy committees as a bipartisan appointee. Esther’s commitment to an Australian republic dates back to the 1999 referendum where her grassroots campaign work included moderating a raucous artists’ debate at Parramatta Rd’s long-lost Side On jazz bar. More recently she’s been a member of the ARM’s Victorian Branch Council. While leading regional and national peak bodies, Esther designed and presented Australia’s first comprehensive advocacy training programs for the arts and cultural sector, supporting thousands in first-time and ongoing civic engagement. Her writing has long focused on the foundations of Australian democracy and the need for an Australian head of state, and she’s a frequent commentator on national politics and culture. Esther is the author of Place, Practice, Politics (2021), editor of Meanjin (2022-2025) and Essays that Changed Australia (2024), and her latest book When Australia Became a Republic was published in 2025.
Alex Barnes, ACT Convenor
Alex Barnes is the founder and CEO of Lanterne, a software platform that automates fleet operations for car-share, rental and micromobility operators globally.
Before founding Lanterne, Alex was an analyst with the Australian Department of Defence, specialising in Afghanistan and deploying multiple times in support of operations.
Alex completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford and his master's at the London School of Economics.
"I believe in building a future Australia that reflects our egalitarian spirit, with a fully independent head of state chosen by Australians."
Fionn Burke, Youth Convenor
Fionn is studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics alongside a Diploma of Language in Indonesian at the University of Sydney. He joins the Australian Republic Movement team after cutting his teeth in youth organising across campuses and broader activist communities, founding and running clubs, engaging in student unions, and building grassroots campaigns that got young people involved in political life. He is currently serving as the inaugural President of the PPE Society and holds an elected position on the Student Representative Council.
For Fionn, a republic means we shed our British colonial ties and instead take our place in the Asia-Pacific, on a footing that allows a genuine journey to reconciliation. The question of sovereignty and self-determination is as pressing now as it has ever been, and its answers lie in our youth. Everyone understands an Australian republic is a matter of when not if, and having a republic marks the first step in recreating a government that is representative of its people.
Fionn sees the republican movement as a way to help solve the issues facing young people in modern Australia. Now. It is not an abstract distant concept, a constitutional debate for a later date. It is a way to reframe policy debates. An opportunity to not inherit legacy policy systems, but see them differently, from a different starting point of self-determination and for the good of the people. So, if you are a young person wanting to have a say in shaping our country, please reach out. Know you are welcome.
Jason Dale, Tasmania National Convenor
Jason is a law student and has worked at the Supreme Court of Tasmania for over 2 years.
Jason strongly believes that Australia's youth will play an important role in creating an Australian Republic into the future. Jason believes in a republic because he sees it is the last step to creating an Australian national identity distinct from its British colonial history.
Carl Hagon, Queensland National Convenor
Bio to come
Nathan Hansford, General Committee Member
Nathan is a management consultant with experience advising governments and corporates across Australia, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, the Pacific and Europe.
The experience of having facilitated republic movement supporter groups in Asia prompted Nathan to reconnect with the Australian Republic Movement at a state and national level when he relocated back to Australia.
“We are a multi-cultural country, with tens of thousands of years of Indigenous heritage and custodianship, where equality and independence are core to our sense of us, yet we are still represented by a foreign monarch from a foreign land. I want nothing more than for my Korean-Australian daughters to be able to aspire to the highest representative position in Australia, our Head of State. If you want to be involved in the ACT please find me on the Australian Republic Supporters Facebook Group and connect so we can work together to make an Australian Head of State a reality!”
Alec Hayes, Victorian Convenor
My name is Alec and I am working as Union offical, my deepest passion is communicating and working with everyday people. I want to change our country with others for a better and fairer future.
I believe we are long overdue for who gets to be our head of state. We are an incredibly diverse place with an even more diverse history one that goes back thousands of years. Existing before the monarchy and will exist long after.
To move forward I look forward to connect with everyday Australians and ARM members to build towards this change together.
John Keogh, Western Australian Convenor
John Keogh has always been a passionate supporter of the Republican movement. John formally joined the Australian Republican Movement in 2017, became a member of the WA Committee in 2021 and Deputy co-convenor in 2023. John has served in various roles in the community, having been an inaugural member of a local primary school board, serving on a hospital consumer advisory committee and is a member of his local volunteer fire brigade.
John also serves as a local government councillor and Deputy Mayor for the City of Armadale. John’s professional background is in Education, completing a Master of Education. John has worked in secondary schools for over 15 years in teaching and middle management positions.
John has a strong desire to see a just and equitable Australia, which he believes inherently requires a Republic.
Patrick McGorry AO, Co-Chair
Executive Director of Orygen and Australian of the Year 2010, Patrick is the architect of a 35-year paradigm shift in mental health care, from late-stage treatment of established illness to prevention, early intervention, and analysing the social and economic megatrends driving the youth mental health crisis. Patrick established Orygen in 2001 as the translational medical research vehicle for that paradigm shift, affiliated with the University of Melbourne. Orygen has since evolved into a unique ecosystem comprising clinical care, clinical research, education, and knowledge translation, digital mental health, global mental health, and a policy centre. The models of care he and his colleagues have conceived and designed including early intervention for psychosis, headspace, and new specialised youth mental health platforms, have been successfully scaled across Australia and many other countries. In 2016, he was the first psychiatrist to be elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Beyond this Patrick played a key role in establishing the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, supporting asylum seekers and refugees, and a grassroots activist organisation, Australians for Mental Health. He is also a Director of Ausflag. From 2019-2025, during a period of transition and growth, he was President of Australia’s oldest Irish-Australian Society, the Celtic Club of Melbourne. Patrick has previously served on the ARM National Committee and gave the National Republican Lecture in 2010.
Isaac McSwan, Treasurer & Secretary
Isaac McSwan is a partner of one of Brisbane's fastest growing accounting firms, and director of a large accounting offshoring entity based in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Isaac brings a vast range of financial experience from his dealing within the overseas offshoring industry as well as within the work he does advising businesses within Australia.
Isaac has always been passionate about an Australian republic, believing Australia is already well overdue to step forward and lead with its own Head of State.
Justin O’Brien, NT Convenor
A lifelong republican, Justin lives and works on Larrakia country in Darwin. He has worked as a print journalist and as a federal political adviser in the 1990s, including during the 1999 republic referendum. For the past 25 years, he had held in a variety of senior positions in Indigenous affairs in the NT, including the Northern Land Council and the (former) Northern Territory government Office of Indigenous Policy. For over 20 years he worked for the Mirarr traditional owners of parts of Kakadu National Park and West Arnhem Land, including a long period as CEO of the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation.
Today Justin operates a small consulting firm focusing on capacity building First Nations organisations and negotiating major renewable projects on their behalf. He owes much of his understanding of First Nations organisations and northern politics to his work with the Mirarr and to enduring friendships with the Murumburr people of central Kakadu. Justin is an ardent advocate of a multicultural ‘reconciled republic’ – an Australian republic alive to its unjust colonial heritage, that cherishes and constitutionally recognises First Nations and actively addresses the enduring legacies of colonialism.
Beth O’Leary, NSW Convenor
Beth O’Leary has a professional background in Health Economics consulting and holds master’s degrees in Business and Public Health.
She passionately believes it is time for Australia to have our own head of state. Australia is one of the most prosperous countries in the world. A defining feature of Australia’s culture is the egalitarian principle that everyone is equal and entitled to the same opportunities in life. It is time to take the final step to full independence with a system consistent with our position in the world and our values.
Yasmin Poole, Vice Chair
Yasmin Poole seeks to challenge policymakers to think differently. Her vision is for Australia to become a global leader in intersectional policymaking, with a Parliament that truly reflects the diversity of our communities. She is Plan International's National Ambassador, advocating for young women to be heard in Australian politics. She regularly provides commentary on Australian TV and radio, such as Q+A, The Drum, and ABC News. Yasmin is the Non-Executive Board Director of OzHarvest, Australia’s leading food waste charity, and previously worked on gender equality campaigns for the World Bank in the Pacific region. In 2021, Yasmin was recognised as the Martin Luther King Jr Center’s Youth Influencer of the Year. She is studying a Master of Public Policy and holds a Master in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship.
Aaron Richards, SA Convenor
Aaron is an international business owner and entrepreneur who remains deeply passionate about this great Southern land, proud of its unique identity and place in the world.
As a volunteer firefighter with the Country Fire Service (CFS), Aaron has seen first-hand the strength and resilience of Australian communities.
After working in politics for the better part of a decade, he sought a more meaningful pursuit, one that reflects his values of progress and inclusivity. Aaron believes the Australian Republic Movement should be modern, dynamic, and inclusive, with a single, clear focus: to create the scenario where it has achieved its mission and is no longer needed.
Adam Spencer, vice Chair
Breakfast radio host, science communicator, television comedian, Australia’s best known mathematician, Adam has worn many hats.
But at his heart, he believes in the power of thought and conversation. As such he strongly believes that if we really think about it, and talk about it, Australia will want to take the step of appointing its own, home grown, Head of State.
