King Charles visits Australia as country pauses debate over republic

() – The last time Charles and Camilla visited Australia in 2018, local wedding officiant Lesley Kerl wore a bright red dress and managed to get close enough to the royal couple to strike up a conversation.

Naturally, it was about tea – a topic close to the hearts of many Britons – as Kerl passed Charles, then prince now king, a gift of a teapot from people further back in the crowd of flag-waving supporters. .

“I was hooked after seeing it that time,” said Kerl, who considers herself a follower of the British royal family, though not necessarily a staunch monarchist.
Kerl will be in Sydney on Tuesday to try to meet the 75-year-old British ruler again during his first tour of a Commonwealth kingdom since ascending the throne.

After Australia, King Charles will head to Samoa to join world leaders at the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), his first as head of the organisation.

This is the king’s first long-distance trip to multiple countries since he was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and his schedule has been lightened during the 11-day trip to allow him to rest during a break in his treatment.

As with any royal tour, there will be organized pageantry, but also predictable conversations at dinner tables, on television and online about when Australia might cut ties with the House of Windsor.

The consensus seems to be that it won’t happen anytime soon, not least because of Australia’s poor record in passing the referendums necessary for any change to the country’s Constitution.

For the government, the defeat of the last referendum, held in October, not on the republic, but to enshrine an indigenous advisory group in the Constitution, was a painful lesson in how costly it is to hold a vote of this type and the damage it can cause in a country with very divergent opinions.

The candles at the famous Sydney Opera House will be lit this Friday for the arrival of the royal couple, but some of the pre-trip conversations were less than warm.

Republicans have renamed the visit “Oz’s farewell tour” and have put on sale T-shirts with the faces of the royals as if they were members of a rock group about to disband.

“We would love to say goodbye to the royal reign,” Nathan Hansford, co-chair of the Australian Republican Movement, told Reuters.
For Bev McArthur, a member of the state parliament, such sentiments are “disrespectful.”

“This man is undergoing cancer treatment. It seems he has put it on hold to come to Australia, as part of the Commonwealth,” McArthur said.

She is also disappointed with the response of the prime ministers, who apparently declined invitations to meet the kings at a royal reception due to scheduling reasons.

“I think they are unable to take the Republican hat off their heads,” said McArthur, a Victorian member of Parliament. “The least we can do is have our leaders give him the respect he deserves.”

The monarch’s arrival comes about a year after the failed Voice referendum, which dealt a blow to many of Australia’s minority indigenous people.

The referendum would have enshrined in the Constitution the creation of an indigenous advisory body so that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people would have more say in policies that affect them.
However, it was rejected and, for many, the king’s arrival is another painful reminder of the dispossession, slaughter and attempted elimination of his people.

For others, the trip is an irrelevant distraction from the cost-of-living crisis, as mortgage holders struggle to find extra money to finance loans inflated by high interest rates.

In a week in which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was reported to have purchased a A$4.3 million ($2.9 million) cliffside home, there has also been talk of lack of affordability of the home.

For the average Australian, praising a monarch’s visit from a foreign palace is not high on their list.

Although he has already traveled abroad since being diagnosed with the disease, such as to cross the English Channel to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy in June, this trip will be an important moment for Carlos.

“It is notable that he visits Australia a year after his coronation as it echoes the 1954 tour of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, following her coronation in 1953,” said George Gross, royal historian and visiting researcher at King’s College London.

The absence of trips to Commonwealth countries after his accession to the throne had inflamed tempers. The announcements of the first tours abroad, to Germany and France, were received with surprise. Those trips were followed by a visit to Kenya, which is a member of the Commonwealth but not a kingdom.
Charles is the President of the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent countries. Of these 14 countries, in addition to the United Kingdom, he is Head of State, although his role is more ceremonial. Many expected that during his stay in the region he would make a stop in New Zealand. However, although it was considered, it was finally decided not to do it due to medical recommendation.

Carlos’s assistants have worked to ensure that this long-term tour does not become too exhausting for him. All engagements have been carefully selected to reflect the interests of the royal couple and, where necessary, modified to minimize any risk to their convalescence.

They will spend time in Canberra, the Australian capital, where they will be received by Albanese, a supporter of the republic, and other government leaders.

They will also pay their respects to the country’s fallen at the Australian War Memorial and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Memorial.
Charles will also meet award-winning teachers Georgina Long and Richard Scolyer, current Australians of the Year. They are both working on a treatment for melanoma, one of the most common cancers in Australia, and Scolyer himself has been treated for brain cancer.

The king’s program also includes several environmental commitments, and the couple will attend an eternal Australian ritual: a community barbecue. Australians will also have the chance to see the royal couple outside the Opera House.

Kerl plans to be there, once again wearing bright clothes to try to get the king’s attention.
In a way, it follows a family tradition. In the 1930s, his father traveled with his mother from Australia to the United Kingdom to attend the coronation of King George VI.