Poll finds 62 per cent believe our head of state should be an Aussie
A new poll has found 62 per cent of Australians think our head of state should be an Aussie and not Queen Elizabeth, with Republicans suggesting we follow Meghan and Harry’s lead in ditching the royal family. HAVE YOUR SAY
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Australians no longer “need to stay holding Britain’s hand”, with new research revealing a majority would likely support the nation becoming a republic.
More than 20 years after the country voted to retain the monarchy in the controversial Republic Referendum, a poll conducted by YouGov of nearly 4500 Australians found 62 per cent believed our head of state should be an Aussie and not Queen Elizabeth.
South Australians were most in favour of ditching the status quo at 67 per cent, followed by Tasmania (65 per cent), Western Australia and Victoria (64 per cent), NSW (61 per cent) and Queensland (59 per cent).
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YouGov Head of Public Affairs and Polling Dr Campbell White said the results “suggest that if a referendum was done in a way that addressed only the issue of whether we should have an Australian head of state, it looks like it would quite easily get up.
“We’re in very different times and I think that is probably making people re-evaluate things,” Dr Campbell said.
“You could argue that recently the UK has been like the uncle that nobody wants to talk about.”
The poll asked the question: Australia’s current head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who is resident in the United Kingdom, and represented in Australia by a Governor-general — do you think Australia should have an Australian as our head of state? To a simple yes or no choice, 62 per cent would vote “yes” and 38 per cent “no”.
The poll was taken against a backdrop of royal controversy, with Prince Harry and Meghan turning their back on royal duties and Britain itself, and Prince Andrew blighted by his connections to American billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, leaving the Queen, Prince Charles and Camilla, and Prince William and Kate flying the flag for the monarchy.
Australian Republic Movement chairman Peter FitzSimons said the results were very encouraging, and with Harry and Meghan doing “a runner from the royal family, it highlights the fact that we can do the same.”
“Since I have been involved with the ARM, which goes back two decades now, the traditional magic number has been 60 per cent — as in the politicians have said to us ‘Get it over 60 per cent and you will have a strong enough backing that we might back you’,” he said.
“We don’t need to stay holding Britain’s hand. It is demeaning, and unworthy of us, particularly at a time when Britain has left Europe, and we are still seen to be clinging to Britain.”
Mr FitzSimons said Prince Andrew proved the idea “that Royals are automatically a better breed” was nonsense, while Australians had risen to the challenge of fires, flood and COVID-19, and shown that when “we’re put to the test we can look after ourselves as an independent, self-reliant nation”.
Originally published as Poll finds 62 per cent believe our head of state should be an Aussie
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