Monarchists warn our G-G not to mention the R word to the King. What royal fools

Finally, it’s the night of the ball and the ugly sister has turned up, behaving as unpleasantly as is humanly possible. Yes, the King and Queen arrive in Australia on Friday night, and which group conducts itself entirely without decorum? The Australian Monarchist League. “We are keeping a watching brief on the governor-general so that she does not put a foot out of place,” the AML told News Corp mastheads.

What is this? Stalker nation? And more: “It will be inappropriate for her to make any expression of republican overtones which are not in touch with the people’s current mood. We urge her to remember the charter of her office, that she is a subordinate officer of the Crown and must be above politics.”

Governor-General Samantha Mostyn meets King Charles at Buckingham Palace in May. Credit: PA Pool/Getty Images

A bunch of people whose familiarity with public office is scant telling a sheila who’s been doing public office since she was elected a prefect in primary school. Sigh.

Here’s the bad news for the AML. The King himself is way ahead of the game. In the run-up to this visit, the Australian Republican Movement exchanged letters with Buckingham Palace officials, writing on the King’s behalf. Here’s the tea spilt. The palace letters said: “Whether Australia becomes a republic” is a “matter for the Australian public to decide”.

This visit should be a moment of great celebration for the AML. It should be the highlight of its miserable carping existence. Welcoming King Charles and Queen Camilla with joy, bobs, bows and bowers of flowers. Instead, it has corrupted this moment with a creepy attack on Governor-General Samantha Mostyn. If the AML wants to shore up the monarchy, do it with love. Have fun. Don’t be creepy creepers. This is your shot, monarchists. Don’t throw it away.

Why? Because when Mostyn was just a normal human being (Sam), she expressed a desire for Australia to be a republic. She thought we should have an Australian head of state. That was donkey’s years ago.

Let me tell you about Australians and the republic. We’ve never really come close. Back in 1999, when we voted on this very issue, it was about a 60/40 vibe. Most people wanted to keep things as they were. The pollster Jim Reed, of Resolve Monitor, tells me his observation is that there is no mood for change, no motivator to move away from the monarchy. “And now no mechanism, minister or model to guide a change to a republic either,” he says.

He’s not the only one who says this. Ian McAllister, distinguished professor of political science at the Australian National University, has researched political trends in Australia for decades. He’s found that a little over half of us favour a republic. Fewer than half of us think the monarch is important (and his survey was taken in the months before the widely admired Queen Elizabeth died).

We aren’t terribly exercised either way, to be honest.

So for the AML to pretend it’s speaking up for Australians is a gross misrepresentation. No one cares enough about the King or the Queen to make a fuss. No one is lining the streets. My god, I remember when Diana came here and Australia went wild. I went wild. I was sent off to cover a lunch held in her honour and I went nuts. Diana was so radiant and I was so enthralled, I was nearly sunburnt.

Here’s the AML’s problem. No one cares about the monarchy any more. No one cares about the AML. And now we’ve got a governor-general who, as I’ve said before, is a goody-two-shoes. Would she discuss Australia becoming a republic with the King? Of course she would, but only if he brings it up first. And I bet he will. He’s no dummy, and I am sure he sees that change – whenever we get around to it – is inevitable. While his mother was alive, people felt a sense of loyalty. That loyalty is waning.

But Mostyn is the loyal type and she signed up to the role. There is absolutely no way she would do the wrong thing. As I’ve said before, school captain, school counsellor, all kinds of merit awards. If we’d been at school together, I would have spent my time rolling my eyes every time she walked past. She’s what I might have described as a conch* in my less kind days.

As a spokesperson for the GG said this week in an attempt to put the AML baloney in a sandwich: “Since taking office, the governor-general has spoken regularly about the importance of care for our institutions, of civics and of the important role of the crown and the role of the governor-general in our system.”

But let’s go to what the woman herself said in her swearing-in speech in the Senate on July 1.

“If I can capture in a few words my aspirations for our country, I believe that these testing times call for an unstinting focus on kindness, on care and on respect ... to the way in which we challenge ourselves and one another, and engage in the contest of ideas that will guide the tough decisions that are needed for our country to thrive.”

Yeah, a real revolutionary. If that’s the kind of republic we’d get, bring it on. Bring it right up to the royalists. We don’t need a bunch of mean-spirited monarchists picking, picking, surveilling a leader doing her very best for all of us. Which will not necessarily mean I won’t roll my eyes next time she walks past.

* Conch: conscientious, all assignments handed in on time, no parking tickets ever, annoyingly law-abiding and punctual.

Jenna Price is a visiting fellow at the Australian National University and a regular columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.

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