King Charles? Majority of Australians support a republic instead of Queen Elizabeth's successor

James Massola

•Turnbull and Charles? PMs past provide the real awkward moments
Well, this is awkward.

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, had just landed in Australia for his 15th visit, where they have been feted by crowds while sampling the fine local wines, cheeses and seafood at South Australia's Barossa Valley, before attending Remembrance Day ceremonies in Canberra.

It was all going so well.

But a new poll released by the Australian Republican Movement carries a blunt message from Australian voters: 51 per cent would prefer an Australian head of state to "King Charles" when the time comes for him to replace his mother, Queen Elizabeth.

The poll of 1008 voters, commissioned by the ARM and conducted by Essential Research from November 5 to 8, asked "When Prince Charles becomes King of Australia, will you support or oppose replacing the British monarch with an Australian citizen as Australia's head of state?"

Just 27 per cent of voters opposed replacing King Charles with an Australian head of state, while 22 per cent of people were undecided.

Perhaps more significantly, 50 per cent of Coalition voters - who typically are less likely to back a Republic, supported constitutional change, with 34 per cent opposed to it.

Among Labor voters, 62 per cent supported change when Charles becomes king and 21 per cent oppose it, while for Greens voters, 57 per cent support change and 17 per cent oppose it.

As Charles and Camilla arrived in Canberra on Wednesday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull brushed aside questions about whether he believed - as he has previously argued - that Australians would struggle to accept Prince Charles as King of Australia one day.

"If the Queen's reign comes to an end and the constitution is in the form it is today, Prince Charles will become our head of state ... so if Charles become the King of the United Kingdom as I have no doubt he will be, unless our constitution has been changed, he will become the King of Australia," he said.

And the prospect of such constitutional change?

"The opportunities for constitutional change are somewhat more challenging than the opportunities for strong economic growth."

Republican support 'widespread'

ARM chairman Peter FitzSimons said that while the movement welcomed Charles and Camilla to Australia, "We look forward to the day when members of the royal family make the trip as our equals and not Australia's current and future rulers".

"This polling makes it abundantly clear, the question of an Australian republic is not a left/right issue: support exists across the Australian community, and the Republican Movement hasn't even really started campaigning yet," he said.

"As our future King and his wife touch down for their five-day tour, the Australian people are getting behind the idea of an Australian head of state in a big way. And that support is only going to increase, especially if Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull makes it a priority as we hope and expect he will."

Mr Fitzsimons said he had spoken to Mr Turnbull about the republic since the change of leadership and had been left in no doubt the Prime Minister's passion for the change was undimmed.

"But he said it has to be a people's movement and it does need to be, wide and broad," he said.

Expressions of support had also come from Liberal ministers including Christopher Pyne, Marise Payne and Wyatt Roy, Mr FitzSimons said, and membership had grown by 131 per cent since he took over in July.

A generation after defeat at the 1999 referendum, republicans have targeted a plebiscite by 2020 followed by a referendum proposing a specific republican model by 2025.

Why wait?

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and Greens leader Richard Di Natale both support, like Mr Turnbull, an Australian republic with the Labor leader promising to make it happen within a decade.

In an opinion piece for Fairfax Media, Mr Shorten argued on Wednesday that "both Malcolm Turnbull and I both support a republic, so why wait?"

In recent years, support for a republic has slipped in public polling, at least in part because of Queen Elizabeth's enduring popularity.

A February 2014 poll, for example, found that support for a republic had slipped to a 20-year low, with just 39.4 per cent of Australians backing the move, 41.6 per cent opposing it and 19 per cent expressing no opinion on the issue.

The poll findings come less than two weeks after Mr Turnbull, an avowed republican who led the "yes" campaign for a republic in 1999, dumped former prime minister Tony Abbott's hugely controversial decision to re-introduce knights and dames.

As far back as January 31, 1988, Mr Turnbull wrote in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that an "Australian Republic must await the end of her [Queen Elizabeth's] reign" - but that "if her son wishes to do something of significance in Australia's history, he should make it plain that, whatever the Australians may think, he will not be our King".

It is unclear if Mr Turnbull and Prince Charles will discuss this suggestion when they meet on Wednesday.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/king-charles-majority-of-australians-support-a-republic-instead-of-queen-elizabeths-successor-20151110-gkvwqy.html






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