Britain’s King Charles III and Queen Camilla wave to the crowd as they arrive in a horse-drawn carriage to the parade ring during the third day of the Royal Ascot horse racing event, traditionally known as Ladies’ Day, June 20, 2024 in Ascot, England. Kin Chan/AP Hide caption
Toggle caption Kin Chan/AP
MELBOURNE, Australia — King Charles III and Queen Camilla will arrive in Sydney on Friday for the first visit of a living monarch to Australia in more than a decade, a visit that has reignited debate over their constitutional ties to Britain. .
The Sydney Opera House’s iconic sails will be illuminated with footage of past royal visits to welcome the couple, making their six-day trip short by royal standards. Charles, 75, is undergoing treatment for cancer, so his itinerary has been curtailed.
He is the second current British monarch to visit Australia. His mother, Queen Elizabeth, became the first queen 70 years ago.
The reception will be warm, but Australia’s national and state leaders want to remove the monarchy from the constitution.
Monarchists hope the visit will strengthen ties between Australians and their sovereign. Opponents want to reject the notion that someone halfway around the world is Australia’s head of state.
The Australian Republic Movement, which campaigns for Australians to replace the British monarch as head of state, likens the royal visit to an entertainment industry tour.
This week, ARM launched what it calls the “Say goodbye to monarchical rule: Goodbye Oz Tour!” campaign.
ARM co-chair Esther Anatolytis said the royal's visit to Australia was “like a show coming to town”.
“Unfortunately, this is a reminder that Australia’s head of state is not full-time and is not Australian. In many places, the head of state is a part-time person based overseas.” Anatolytis told The Associated Press.
“We say to Charles and Camilla: ‘Welcome, we hope you are enjoying our country and are staying healthy and well.’ But we also say this to the incumbent Australian monarch. I look forward to this being my last visit, and I look forward to welcoming him as a visiting dignitary when he visits again in the near future.”
Philip Benwell, national president of the Australian Monarchist Federation, which campaigns for Australia to maintain its constitutional ties with the UK, expects the reaction to the royal couple will be overwhelmingly positive.
“We don’t have a monarchy, so events like a royal visit bring the king closer to people’s hearts,” Benwell told The Associated Press.
“The King’s visit is a stark reminder that Australia is a constitutional monarchy and we have a King,” he added.
Mr Benwell criticized the premiers of all six states for declining invitations to attend Charles’s reception in the capital Canberra.
Both prime ministers each explained that they had more pressing matters to attend to that day, such as cabinet meetings and overseas trips.
“Prime ministers will effectively have an obligation to come to Canberra to meet him and pay their respects,” Mr Benwell said. “Not attending would be considered disrespectful, as this is not a normal visit. This is the first time a monarch has visited Australia.”
Mr Charles was drawn into Australian republic discussions several months before his visit.
The Australian Republican Movement wrote to Charles in December last year, calling on the monarch to hold a meeting in Australia and champion their cause. Buckingham Palace said in a polite letter in March that the decision to meet with the king would be made by the Australian government. The meeting with ARM is not on the official itinerary.
“Whether Australia becomes a republic…is a matter for the Australian people to decide,” the letter from Buckingham Palace said.
The Associated Press has seen copies of both letters.
Australians voted in a referendum in 1999 to retain Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. The result is widely seen as a result of disagreement over how the president should be chosen, rather than majority support for the monarch.
Prince Charles will visit Sydney and Canberra, 250 kilometers away, before heading to Samoa to open the annual Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
When his mother made the last of her 16 trips to Australia in 2011, at the age of 85, she visited Canberra, Brisbane and Melbourne on the east coast, and then held a federal government summit in the west coast city of Perth. Ta.
Elizabeth’s first grueling trip to Australia at the age of 27 took her to many remote outback towns. An estimated 75% of the nation’s population came to see her.
At the time, Australia had a racist policy that gave preferential treatment to British immigrants. Immigration policy has been non-discriminatory since 1973.
Mr Anatolytis pointed out that Australia is now much more multicultural, with most of the population either born overseas or having parents born overseas.
“In the ’50s, we didn’t have the global interconnectedness that we have today,” she said.