Rejoice! Australia’s absentee head of state is stopping over for a few days on his way to the Commonwealth meeting in Samoa. Yet as is often the case with royal visits these days, there seems to be little public interest. And, as in the UK, this royal visit will be met by protest from republicans.
The campaign group Republic, of which I’m CEO, has been protesting at royal events since Charles took to the throne two years ago. Every major royal event in the UK is now greeted by our yellow banners and flags and chants of “Not My King!” So when the palace announced Charles’s trip to Australia earlier this year I decided we should probably follow him and continue to make our views heard loud and clear.
I’m not here to campaign for an Australian republic, although I am a dual citizen of both the UK and Australia. There are other groups such as the Australian Republic Movement and Labor for an Australian Republic that can lead the charge here. My protest will be small and symbolic, but my aim is clear: to continue to challenge the narrative of the successful royal tour, the excited locals and grateful population. To say that wherever Charles goes he’s likely to face protest, just as William and Kate did during their ill-fated tour of the Caribbean in 2022.
That said, I do have a message for Australians who believe the monarchy is harmless and irrelevant, who appreciate that the country ought to ditch the monarchy but can’t muster enthusiasm for the cause.
That message is simple.
The monarchy isn’t good for anything or anyone, it is not dignified and deserves condemnation, not respect, and the UK is far from the nation of royalists you see portrayed by parts of the media.
In the run up to the coronation a poll showed just 9% were excited about the forthcoming ceremony. That is perhaps partly explained by the estimated £250m/A$485m cost during a cost-of-living crisis. By January this year two polls put support for the monarchy in the UK at below 50%. It’s crept back up over the halfway mark since, but polling consistently shows a sharp drop in support compared to the 2012 jubilee and significant growth in support for a republic, which now stands at around a third.
The change of monarch is part of the explanation for this drop in enthusiasm for the royals. For many, the late Queen was the monarchy, the monarchy was the Queen. Scandal has helped too, with Prince Andrew continuing to tarnish the image of the whole institution, while the fallout from Harry and Meghan’s departure has also dented the image of the model family. Campaigning makes a difference too. Republic has grown enormously over the past two years, helped in part by the unlawful arrest of myself and other protest organisers on the day of the jubilee. But also by continuing protests and other campaigns, such as our recent report on the cost of the monarchy.
That report put the annual cost of the royals at almost a billion dollars (£510m). That’s a cost met solely by the British taxpayer, at a time when the British government is promising more welfare cuts and is talking up a financial “black hole”. This week I’m calling on Australia, New Zealand and Canada to put their money where their constitution is and help foot that bill. I suspect being asked to stump up £128m/A$250m a year for the royals would get that referendum back up pretty quickly.
That £510m price tag caused genuine concern and anger in the UK, yet the cost of the monarchy isn’t the issue. It is a symptom of a corrupt and unaccountable institution. That’s not an accusation of law-breaking, but of abuse of public office by demanding secrecy and access at the very highest levels of government and obtaining exemptions from environmental protection and race discrimination laws. As I have written before: “It is not unreasonable to conclude that the institution is corrupt, if corruption is the abuse of public office for personal gain. Whether it’s using tens of millions of pounds each year to cover costs such as travel or palatial homes, or lobbying the government in pursuit of their private interests or political agendas, the royals exploit their status and position week in, week out.”
In the UK the problem of the monarchy goes much deeper. It has a profound and negative affect on our politics, funnelling power into the office of the prime minister, leaving us with a creaking antiquated constitution and failing to provide us with an effective or useful head of state. The monarchy also stands firmly against the values of democracy, equality and the rule of law, values cherished in the UK and Australia.
Most countries in the Commonwealth are already republics. Fewer than 10% of Commonwealth citizens have Charles as their head of state. Of those that do, most simply don’t care and many in the Caribbean are actively pushing the republican cause. In the UK that cause is gaining momentum, the campaign gaining strength. We will win, the question is when. And the question for Australia is whether the UK will get there first, and what that means for a proud and independent nation.
• Graham Smith is CEO of Republic and author of Abolish the Monarchy, Why We Should and How We Will
