Editor TLN
Sep. 15 () –
The Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese, has assured this Thursday that turning the country into a republic after the death of Elizabeth II is not a priority, while maintaining that a constitutional change “is very difficult”.
“I have made it very clear, and I did it before the elections, what my priority is. Getting a constitutional change in this country is very difficult (…) We had a vote on the republic at the end of the last century and it is difficult to get the change,” the Australian president said in an interview with ABC News.
However, the also leader of the Australian Labor Party has detailed that his priority is to carry out a constitutional referendum so that parliamentarians must consult with indigenous peoples on matters that affect them.
“I want Australians to focus on the ‘Voice to Parliament’ (the name of the measure). If you think about the counterfactual it is, to me, inconceivable, that the next change we need to our constitution is anything other than acknowledging that our national birth certificate, which is what the Constitution represents,” added Albanese.
The Australian prime minister has spent several days dodging questions about the possible holding of a referendum to choose the type of head of state that Australians prefer, claiming that it is “inappropriate” to discuss the issue while commemorating the reign of Elizabeth II.
Australia was a British colony until 1901, when it declared its independence, although it continued to have the British monarch as its head of state.
