King Charles III ends first Australian visit by a reigning British monarch in 13 years

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — King Charles III on Tuesday wraps up the first visit to Australia by a reigning British monarch in 13 years, with anti-monarchists hoping his journey is a step toward an Australian citizen becoming head of state .

Controversy interrupted the visit on Monday when independent Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe shouted at Charles during a reception that he was not her king and Australia was not her land.

Esther Anatolitis, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns for an Australian citizen to replace the British monarch as Australia’s head of state, said that although thousands of people had turned out to see King and Queen Camilla at their public engagements, the numbers were higher when his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, first visited Australia 70 years ago.

An estimated 75% of Australia’s population saw the Queen in person during the first visit by a reigning British monarch in 1954.

“It’s understandable that Australians 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 by birth from another country.”

Anatolitis recognized that it would be difficult to get a majority of Australians in most states to vote to change the constitution. Australians have not changed their constitution since 1977.

“It’s complicated, isn’t it? We have this obstacle, of course,” said Anatolitis.

Constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey said an Australian republic was not something Charles, 75, needed to worry about in his lifetime.

She said the failure of a referendum last year to create an “entirely innocuous” Indigenous representative body to advise the government demonstrated the difficulty in changing Australia’s constitution.

“It turns out that, in general, people are not prepared to change the constitution,” Twomey said.

“So a republic, which would be a much more complex constitutional issue than last year, would be much more vulnerable to a scary campaign and opposition,” she said.

“So unless you had absolutely unanimous support from everyone and a strong reason to do it, it would fail,” she added.

Philip Benwell, national president of the Australian Monarchist League, which wants to maintain Australia’s constitutional link with Britain, said he was near Thorpe at the reception in Canberra when she began shouting at the king and demanding a treaty with the indigenous people. Australians.

“I think she alienated a lot of sympathy. In fact, it helped strengthen our support,” Benwell said.

Thorpe was criticized, including by some indigenous leaders, for shouting at the king and not showing respect.

Thorpe was unrepentant. She rejected criticism that her aggressive approach towards the monarch was violent.

“I think what was unacceptable is the violence in that room, from the king of England praising himself, dripping stolen riches, that’s what’s violent,” Thorpe told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. authority, being paid for by all the taxpayers of this country.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants Australia to become a republic, but has ruled out holding a referendum during his first three-year term. The vote remains a possibility if his center-left Labor Party wins elections scheduled for May next year.

Australians decided, in a referendum in 1999, to keep Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. This outcome is widely considered to be a consequence of disagreement over how a president would be chosen, rather than majority support for a monarch.

University of Sydney royal historian Cindy McCreery suspects Australia is not yet ready to make the change.

“There is interest in becoming a republic, but I think what we may forget is that, logistically speaking, we are not going to have a referendum on that issue anytime soon,” McCreery said.

“I, as a historian, think it is probably unrealistic to expect a successful referendum on a republic until we have worked harder to recognize our…complicated history,” she said.

“Becoming a republic does not mean that we somehow get rid of British colonialism. We hope this means we are engaging with our own story in an honest and thoughtful way,” she added.

Charles and Camilla’s Tuesday began watching Indigenous dancers perform at a Sydney Indigenous community center. The couple used tongs to cook sausages at a community barbecue in the central suburb of Parramatta and later shook hands with well-wishers for the last time on their visit outside the Sydney Opera House. The final engagement was an inspection of Navy ships in Sydney Harbor in an event known as a fleet review.

Charles’ trip to Australia was cut short because he is undergoing cancer treatment. He arrives in Samoa on Wednesday.