CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Many regarded Australians’ respect and affection for the late Queen Elizabeth II as the biggest obstacle to the country becoming a…
Many regarded Australians’ respect and affection for the late Queen Elizabeth II as the biggest obstacle to the country becoming a republic with its own head of state.
Now after her death and with a pro-republic Labor Party government in power, Australia’s constitutional ties to the British monarchy will again be open to first-order debate for the first time since change was rejected at a 1999 referendum.
During her long reign, the queen connected to Australia in ways that no monarch before her had done.
In 1954 she became the only reigning British monarch to visit Australia. Such was her star power, an estimated 70% of Australia’s population turned out to see her during a punishing two-month itinerary that took her and her husband Prince Philip to 57 towns and cities spread across vast distances. She visited 16 times, the final time in 2011 when she was 85.
Her face is the only monarch to appear on Australian money since decimal currency was introduced in 1966 when Australian dollars and cents replaced British-style pounds, shillings and pence.
Her eldest son, King Charles III, was officially proclaimed Australia’s head of state Sunday by the monarch’s Australian representative Governor-General David Hurley at a protocol-heavy ceremony at Parliament House that ended with a 21-gun salute.
Anthony Albanese, who describes himself as the first candidate with a “non-Anglo Celtic name” to run for prime minister in the 121 years that the office has existed, started laying the groundwork for an Australian republic when Labor was elected in May after nine years in opposition.
Albanese created a new position of Assistant Minister for the Republic and appointed Matt Thistlethwaite to the role in June. Thistlethwaite had said there would be no change in the queen’s lifetime.
The prime minister has said that a republic referendum is not a priority of his first three-year term in government.
He is already planning a referendum to be held in the current term that would enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in Australia’s constitution. While details have yet to be finalized, the voice would provide a mechanism that would allow Indigenous representatives to address Parliament about laws that effect their lives.
