King Charles III ended the first visit by a British monarch to Australia in 13 years on Tuesday, with monarchy opponents hoping his visit is a step towards allowing an Australian citizen to become head of state.
Controversy hit the visit on Monday when Indigenous independent senator Lydia Thorpe shouted at Charles during a reception, saying he was not their king and Australia was not their land.
Esther Anatolytis, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns to appoint an Australian citizen to replace the British monarch as Australia’s head of state, said thousands of people would support the king and Queen Camilla at their public appearances. Came to watch, but the number was more. When his mother Queen Elizabeth II first came to Australia 70 years ago.
An estimated 75% of Australia’s population saw the Queen in person during the first visit by a British monarch in 1954.
“It makes sense that the Australian people would welcome the king and queen, we welcome them too,” Anatolitis said. “But it makes no sense to continue to have a head of state appointed on the basis of birthright from another country.”
Anatolitis acknowledged that it would be difficult to get the majority of Australians in most states to vote for changes to the Constitution. The Australian people have not changed their constitution since 1977.
“It’s difficult, isn’t it? Of course, we’ve got that hurdle,” Anatolitis said.
Constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said an Australian republic is not something Charles, 75, needs to worry about during his lifetime.
He said the failure of last year’s referendum to create a “completely innocuous” indigenous representative body to advise the government demonstrated the difficulty of changing Australia’s constitution.
“It’s just that people are not ready to change the Constitution,” Toomey said.
“So a republic, which will have far more complex constitutional questions than it did last year, will be far more vulnerable to scare campaigns and opposition,” she said.
“So unless you have absolutely unanimous support across the board and there is a strong reason to do it, it will fail,” he said.
Philip Benwell, national president of the Australian Monarchist League, which wants to maintain Australia’s constitutional relationship with Britain, said he was standing near Thorpe at a Canberra reception when she began shouting at the King and demanding a treaty with Indigenous Australians. Started doing.
“I think he’s taken away a lot of the sympathy. If anything, it has helped solidify our support,” Benwell said.
Thorpe has been criticized, including by some Indigenous leaders, for yelling at the king and failing to show respect.
Thorpe had no regrets. He rejected the criticism that his aggressive approach towards the king was violent.
“I think what was unacceptable is the violence that happened in that room, the King of England praising himself, dripping stolen property, that’s what is violent,” Thorpe told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. Authority, which is being paid for by every taxpayer in this country.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants Australia to become a republic but has refused to hold a referendum during his first three years in office.
The vote remains likely if his centre-left Labor Party wins elections in May next year.
Australians decided to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state in a referendum in 1999. That outcome is widely believed to be the result of disagreement over how the president would be chosen rather than majority support for a monarch.
Sydney University royal historian Cindy McCreary suspects Australia is not yet ready for change.
McCreery said, “There is an interest in becoming a republic, but I think what we may forget is that logically speaking, we’re not going to have a referendum on that issue any time soon.”
“I, as a historian, think it is probably not realistic to expect a successful referendum on a republic unless we do more work on acknowledging our…complex history,” she said.
“Becoming a republic does not mean that we have somehow abandoned British colonialism. “Hopefully it will mean we are engaging with our history in an honest and thoughtful way,” he added.
Charles and Camilla began watching Indigenous dancers perform at the Sydney Indigenous Community Center on Tuesday.
The pair used tongs to cook sausages at a community barbecue lunch in the central suburb of Parramatta and later shook hands with well-wishers outside the Sydney Opera House during their last visit.
His last assignment was to inspect naval ships at Sydney Harbor in an event known as the Fleet Review.
Charles’s trip to Australia was cut short because he is undergoing cancer treatment.
He will reach Samoa on Wednesday.
