King Charles is considering to renounce his claim on Australia, because the Royal family would have been “glad” if the country had voted to become a republic, a former prime minister has claimed.
Paul Keating, Australia’s Labour leader from 1991 to 1996, said he had discussed plans to campaign for an Australian head of state with Queen Elizabeth in a private meeting in Balmoral during his premiership.
“I think the royal family would have been so glad for the referendum to have passed, to be honest”, he said, referring to the failed 1999 vote, the Guardian reported.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if King Charles III, the king of Australia, doesn’t volunteer […] to renounce his claim on Australia”, he told Prof James Curran, a historian at the University of Sydney, during an online event on Wednesday evening.
“Look at the French. The French had a revolution for their republic. The Americans had a revolution for their republic. We couldn’t even pinch ours off Queen Elizabeth II – who didn’t want it. We couldn’t take the title, even if the monarch was happy to give it”, he claimed.
Keating, 78, added that he had been asked by the Australian Republican Movement to re-enter the debate over the country’s head of state following the death of Queen Elizabeth, but that he had little interest in stepping back into the limelight.
Commenting on the possibility of King Charles III giving away monarchy in Australia, there have been so much of opinion from the people. Here are some of them:
Michael: If King Charles renounced the monarchy in Australia, it would immediately throw the Australian government into a constitutional crisis. Unless Australians vote in the future to be a republic, and amend/ratify the constitution to reflect that change, it’s not going to happen.
Ryan: I am from USA, but I do say whether or not Australia remains a Monarchy or becomes a Republic is an issue for the Australian people to decide. I think the reason they remained a Monarchy last time a referendum was held, was probably because it had not been decided if the President of Australia would be elected by voters or parliament (and there are some countries with both a President and Prime Minister where the President is just a figurehead who signs Bills into law, but leaves the executive decisions to Prime Minister and cabinet, although France does indeed have their President elected by voters probably because he is more powerful than the ones who end up figureheads). Of course as it stands, since the British Monarch lives in Britain, the other countries with the British Monarch as their Monarch such as Canada and Australia, has a Governor-General acting as head of state on behalf of Monarch. But yeah hopefully if Australia does have a referendum again, it will be clear if their President would be a figurehead as well as how President would be chosen. But again what happens is an issue for the Australian people to decide and I say let them decide for themselves what they prefer.
Spencer: I’m seeing a bit of too much downsizing. . Needs to keep on top of things for connections, stability and support.
Corey: The British Monarchy in Australia is about history and tradition, NOT governance, foreign policy or the rule of law. If Australia chooses to disassociate with the British Monarchy nothing will change other than who is depicted on coins. More pressing are economic embargoes and veiled threats from their distant neighbor well to the north.
William: The Palace Papers regarding the Australian Constitutional Crisis of 1975 make for interesting reading. They were determined not subject to secrecy but public as official Commonwealth correspondence. Although young, Charles was involved; Australians will be revisiting this episode.
Collin: Australia would be the first of many British commonwealth countries to abandon the monarchy. Others are also unhappy with Charles now being King and married to his adulterous mistress wife. What sort of a moral message is that for the young people of today? The fact that Charles has agreed to have Camilla coronated as a monarch will rubber-stamp their decisions to leave. Camilla would become a Queen in her own right if/when Charles dies. There’s nothing to say she has to abdicate the throne. This won’t go down well with the British public either.
Steven: Given Australia’s response to COVID, no one wants to be affiliated with those kangaroo pounders.
Patricia: “If Australians have so little pride in themselves, so little pride that they are happy to be represented by the monarch of Great Britain, why would somebody like me want to shift their miserable view of themselves?”. Ouch. Come on, Aussies, you can make a great country even greater.
Nikita: What in the world we need to grant opportunity to an English monarch, who is a pervert and absolutely corrupt to remain as the monarch of Australia? This sickness should come to an end. Abolish monarchism!
