King Charles and Queen Camilla’s brief visit to Australia on Friday will be their 16th to the country since they spent six months here as a schoolboy back in 1966.
Australians have been waiting for it for months. In any case, there is disappointment that, due to the King’s cancer treatment, it will not be a full royal tour and has been limited to just Sydney and the capital, Canberra.
There is no doubt that the royal couple are very welcome. An opinion poll commissioned by republican Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers found that one in four support the monarchy, and Charles and Camilla personally, more favorably since the King succeeded our late Queen two years ago.
Yes, Australian Republicans have tried to advance their cause. Former co-chair of the Australian Republican Movement, activist and former Crystal Palace footballer Craig Foster made sure to show that he had been invited to the official NSW reception for the royal couple by tweeting the invitation, only to boast that He had snubbed the King. and Queen when lowering it.
King Charles and Queen Camilla’s brief visit to Australia on Friday will be their 16th to the country since they spent six months there as a schoolboy in 1966.
Due to the King’s cancer treatment, it will not be a full royal tour and will be limited to just Sydney and the capital Canberra.
So far, everything is predictable. Sadly, however, Australia’s six state premiers have done the same thing. Each of them has rejected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s invitation to attend the Australian government’s formal royal reception in Canberra.
They all found convenient excuses not to attend, even though they would have been invited months ago. It’s true that the Premier of Queensland is in the midst of an election campaign that he is likely to lose, and the Premier of New South Wales is accompanying the King in Sydney.
But the others? Too busy with trade missions and cabinet meetings, while Western Australia’s premier could only state, pathetically, “other commitments”.
The worst offender is Victoria’s leader, a mediocre performer named Jacinta Allan. Before becoming first minister last year, Allan was the minister who botched the state’s successful bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games and then gave up hosting them, having to shell out almost £104m to Glasgow to win. post.
It’s one thing for people like Craig Foster to snub the King and Queen (attention seeking activists). But it is deplorable that state premiers follow suit, especially since they swore an oath to “be faithful and maintain true loyalty” to the monarch.
All but one of these state leaders are from the Republican Labor Party. But the King remains their constitutional “boss”, and it is common courtesy to show up to meet the King and Queen, not only for their governments, but for all the people of the state they represent.
Such ideological rudeness in the face of a royal visitor who is not only Australia’s head of state, but is also personally brave in making the trip despite serious health problems, is grotesquely disrespectful.
What is even harder to understand is that, when the future of the monarchy in Australia seems more secure than it has for decades, popularity-hungry politicians are so out of step with public opinion that they come up with vague excuses to shirk his loyal duty.
Such rudeness, so different from the grace and dignity of the royal couple, will not be quickly forgotten by Australian voters. Charles and Camilla are better than all of them.
Terry Barnes is Australian. Writer and political commentator.