On his first long-distance trip since he made his cancer public a few months ago, the 75-year-old landed in Sydney in rainy weather with his wife Queen Camilla. Until October 26th, Charles and Camilla will also visit the capital Canberra and the Pacific island state of Samoa, where this year’s Commonwealth summit is taking place.
Charles has a bag full of topics in his luggage. The palace announced that he wanted to honor “the exceptionally rich cultures and communities” that make Australia so special. A meeting with Australian cancer researchers also indirectly sheds light on Charles’s own illness. The fact that the monarch is interrupting the treatment, as British media reported, shows how important the trip to the sixth largest country in the world is to him.
Australia’s head of government is a Republican
But the question of a republic is always present during the first visit by a head of state since 2011. For Charles, the trip to Australia could have been a rather unpleasant royal exercise. Until earlier this year, it looked as if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s government planned to hold a referendum on abolishing the constitutional monarchy in the Commonwealth country in the not too distant future. Albanese is an avowed Republican.
In January – shortly after the royal travel plans became known – the turnaround suddenly came. The vote is “not a priority” and there is “no timetable” for it, Cabinet member Matt Thistlethwaite told the media.
Charles sees government as an Australian affair
Experts also view the debate calmly. “The King – like his mother Queen Elizabeth II – has made it clear that the position of the Crown in Australia is a matter for Australians,” said constitutional lawyer Craig Prescott from London’s Royal Holloway University. A change in the form of government is unlikely to have any consequences, said the royals expert from the German Press Agency. “I doubt that it would pose a real danger to the monarchy as an institution if, for example, Australia or Canada became republics.”
In a referendum in 1999, the majority of Australians voted in favor of the crown. Surveys have recently always pointed to a very close result if there is another vote. The polling institute Yougov wrote last year that around a quarter of Australians were proud of the monarchy (28 percent), while just over 23 percent were ashamed of it. The vast majority – 42 percent – are rather indifferent to the topic.
No portrait on the dollar bill
Nevertheless: The topic of “turning away from the monarchy” keeps coming back like a boomerang in the land of koalas and kangaroos. Last year it was announced that Charles, as the new head of state, would not appear on the Australian five-dollar bill – like his mother before him. In the future, the design will honor the culture and history of the indigenous people.
Already in 2022, on the occasion of a national day of mourning in honor of the late Queen, thousands of mainly indigenous Australians protested against Great Britain’s “colonial imperialism”. Flags were burned and a tribute to Elizabeth II was painted over in the colors of the Aboriginal flag. In addition to Albanese, many Australian state leaders are Republicans – many of whom declined an invitation to a meeting.
On the sidelines of the visit – it is Charles’ 17th in the country – the anti-monarchy organization Republic wants to protest, which has repeatedly raised large yellow flags and the inscription “Not My King” since the monarch’s accession to the throne ) caused a stir. Your boss Graham Smith flew to Australia a long time ago to prepare the actions.
According to Yougov, the royal family remains very popular with a majority of Australians. Charles in particular is more popular with Aussies than any Australian politician. Only his son William is even more esteemed. That may be a glimmer of hope for the future of the crown Down Under – but more than half of Australians are convinced that their country will be a republic in 100 years.
