Fewer than a third of Australians support retaining the Queen as head of state, according to an opinion poll published Sunday in the lead-up to the country's national holiday.
The poll results in the Sunday Telegraph showed 30 percent of 1,200 respondents believed the Queen should remain as head of state, while 64 percent wanted an Australian to hold the position.
It showed 57 percent opposition to changing the Australian flag to remove Britain's Union flag from the top left corner.
A constitutional referendum held in November 1999 resulted in Australians voting 55 percent to 45 percent to retain the monarchy after bitter divisions split the republican movement.
Republicans were divided over whether they wanted a directly elected head of state or one chosen by parliament, while conservative Prime Minister John Howard threw his weight behind the monarchists.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004

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