'Ego-trip for bandana man': Republic movement needs grey-haired snob, top pollster says

Prominent conservative pollster Mark Textor says the push for an Australian republic will fail unless "blokey" men wanting change make way for a grey-haired establishment "snob" to front the campaign.

Speaking to Fairfax Media about his time as a key figure behind conservative governments in Australia, Britain and New Zealand, Mr Textor hit out at the Australian Republic Movement leadership, which includes former Julia Gillard staffer Michael Cooney and Fairfax Media columnist and author Peter FitzSimons.

Australian Republic Movement chairman Peter FitzSimons. Credit: James Brickwood

"I just think it's an ego trip for bandanna man, I just think his ego is getting in the way," Mr Textor said, referring to Mr FitzSimons' penchant for wearing a red bandanna.

"They're trying to be blokey but they actually need a snob.

"They need someone from the establishment to say, 'there's still establishment, there's still an order here above politicians' and Fitzy doesn't say that and all these mad democrats don't say it.

"There's got to be some old, grey-haired man or woman with dignity that says 'we're our own people and we'll always be stable because we're Australians'."

Mr Textor's call for an establishment figure to front the campaign stands in contrast to the wave of anti-establishment votes over recent years in Europe and the United States. But he said that given the instability and uncertainty caused by those votes, the public would only entrust such a drastic change to the way Australia is governed to the hands of very few.

Pollster Mark Textor on his farm outside Goulburn.Credit: Janie Barrett

When contacted for a response about Mr Textor's criticism, Mr FitzSimons said: "Whatev."

"Good luck to Mark Textor, but with the republic firmly back on the front pages, one half of the political equation committing to it in the next electoral cycle, a grassroots campaign now rolling out run by professionals, a four-point rise in popularity and money in the bank, we are more than happy with how things are going," he said.

"Could it be going better? No doubt. Sadly, however, there are a handful of republicans like Textor who insist they know how to do it much better. Great. Thanks, sport. Is it OK if we get on with it meantime?"

While polling shows a majority of Australians support a republic, opposition to scrapping the royal family increased from 35 per cent to 41 per cent this year.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has committed to holding a referendum within Labor's first term should he win the next election. He has said it could take two separate votes to decide the matter, including one on whether the head of state would be chosen through a popular or parliamentary vote, rather than trying to answer questions on the change and the method of election at the same time, which he said led to the republic campaign's failure in 1999.

Mr Shorten this week declined to endorse the Australian Republic Movement's call to have a "trial vote" of the Australian people to help choose the next governor-general.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who led the failed 1999 referendum campaign, calls himself an "Elizabethan" and says there will be no referendum before her reign ends.