Bill Shorten has been promising that 2015 will be a year of ideas for the Labor Party.

On Sunday, the Opposition Leader dipped his toe in the water, albeit briefly, to suggest the time was ripe for another debate about an Australian republic.

In the speech – which also touched on some of Australia's most tragic historical events such as the Myall Creek massacre – Shorten argued that it was time to "declare that our head of state should be one of us" and that Australians should "rally behind an Australian republic – a model that truly speaks for who we are".

He also urged greater ambition upon us, as a nation, and gave a thorough-going examination of national identity and history including the familiar tropes of the Rum Rebellion, Burke and Wills, Bodyline, the stump-jump plough, the Victa Mower and Olympic gold.

A Labor party leader arguing for a republic is, of course, hardly a surprise.

But this was a thoughtful speech from an opposition leader who, perhaps, will be more willing to chance his arm this year than he was in 2014.

It stood in stark contrast to a lukewarm effort last year in Melbourne in which Shorten told a citizenship ceremony that Australia was a great country, though one that needed to challenge itself to be better, and a compassionate one that needed to "worthy of the dreams of its newest arrivals and the pride of its oldest custodians".

The growing confidence of the Opposition Leader – and the links between this year and last – are clear.

In both speeches, Shorten called for constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians.

And in both speeches, he quoted the same Gough Whitlam line: "the main victims of social deprivation and restricted opportunity have been the oldest Australians, and the newest".

But in this early 2015 speech, Shorten has perhaps laid down a marker, one that signals a greater willingness to have a conversation with Australians and even begin a debate about some of those much-promised "ideas".

The Opposition Leader isn't pushing too hard, mind you. After the speech, Shorten was quick to reassure he was not pushing for a second referendum "any time soon".

But for an opposition leader whose task in 2015 is, in part, to rebuild trust in politicians and politics – much like Tony Abbott in opposition – it was an encouraging start.

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