Richard Sanders ,Staff Writer
The heads of six Australian states will miss a reception for King Charles III when he arrives Down Under, while the British monarch has said he would not oppose the former prison colony declaring itself a republic.
While Australia has been fully independent since 1986, its titular head of state is still the British monarch. A 1999 referendum to declare a republic failed, in part due to the popularity of Queen Elizabeth II at the time.
Charles is due to arrive in Australia later this week. On Monday, the premiers of six federal states informed Canberra they would not be able to attend the reception for the monarch, citing prior commitments.
“The failure of state premiers to attend the reception in Canberra is completely indefensible,” Bev McArthur, a Liberal MP and head of the Australian Monarchist League told the BBC. She accused the premiers of wearing “republican hats” and engaging in “gesture-led politics” to insult the king.
Charles would be the second ruling British monarch to make an official visit to Australia, after his mother, who passed away in 2022.
With Queen Elizabeth’s passing, the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) revived their agitation for declaring a republic, arguing that the country should stand on equal footing with other nations around the world.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has previously said that the country “should have an Australian as our head of state,” suggesting he would support another referendum. The 1999 vote saw 54.9% of Australians voting to keep the monarchy.
Last week, the ARM wrote to Buckingham Palace to request a meeting with the king. While Charles III politely declined, his private secretary revealed that the monarch would not stand in the way of Australians electing a president instead.
“His Majesty, as a constitutional monarch, acts on the advice of his ministers and whether Australia becomes a republic is, therefore, a matter for the Australian public to decide,” Dr. Nathan Ross wrote to ARM, according to the Daily Mail. Ross also noted that ARM’s views “have been noted very carefully” and that Charles had “deep love and affection” for Australia.
The group’s invitation was “politely declined,” ARM co-chairman Nathan Hansford told the Mail. He added that Australians are “such a wonderfully diverse nation” that many people feel is not properly represented by a monarch.
There are 14 countries around the world that still consider the British sovereign their head of state. Barbados was the most recent to declare itself a republic, in 2021, but chose to remain in the Commonwealth and maintain cordial relations with London. Jamaica is set to hold a referendum on the issue later this year.
Britain began to settle Australia in 1788, when New South Wales was established as a penal colony. Other colonies followed, and eventually became the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. Present-day Australia consists of six states: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania, along with ten federal territories.