Republicans criticise own movement’s ‘madcap’ coronation stance

Prominent republicans have criticised the Australian Republic Movement’s denunciation of the coronation and the verbal pledge it challenged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to reject, warning the approach could diminish support for the nation’s independence.

The movement’s co-chairs, former professional athletes Craig Foster and Nova Peris, adopted a muscular stance against the coronation and used the event to rally anti-monarchy sentiment.

From left: Matildas captain Sam Kerr, Governor-General David Hurley with wife Linda, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with partner Jodie Haydon on the way to the coronation.Credit: AP

They called on Albanese, a republican, to remain silent at the coronation and not take part in a “disloyal and dishonest” oath. The pair also published a letter they wrote to King Charles III seeking an apology for the effects of colonisation, telling him to pay for his own travel if he visited Australia, and raising the prospect of the Crown paying reparations to Indigenous Australians.

In the letter, Foster and Peris said they would be “pretty busy” after Charles’ coronation but if the King hoped to speak to them he could visit the Australian Republic Movement’s (ARM) website.

Some Labor figures and opponents of the monarchy believe the group’s positioning was overly negative, too focused on the royal family and aimed at staunch republicans who actively dislike the royals rather than the undecided Australians republicans need to win over.

“It risks turning people away who would vote for the republic but don’t feel that negativity towards the royal family is a good enough foundation for a republic,” said David Muir, the head of a smaller group called Real Republic.

“The last thing we need is a campaign that might turn away some supporters,” said Muir, who opposed the model put forward in the failed 1999 republic referendum. “We need as many friends as we can get.”

South Australian Labor minister Tom Koutsantonis said the ARM “has lost us one referendum, let’s not make it two”, while former South Australian Labor attorney-general Michael Atkinson said the group was advancing “madcap” ideas. Victorian Liberal MP Evan Mulholland said he was a republican but the ARM was run by “clowns”.

Tully Fletcher, who was on the ARM’s national committee until this year, said the organisation needed to sort itself out.

“This ain’t it,” he wrote on Twitter. “Imagine accusing a PM (and your biggest supporter) of disloyalty and dishonesty for respecting the King’s position in Australia’s Constitution. It might be outdated but it is current. Bonkers stuff.”

In a statement, Foster said he looked forward to the day when Australian prime ministers were not required to pledge loyalty to an institution that Australians “vehemently reject”.

Foster and Peris’ positioning contrasted with perhaps the most prominent Australian republican, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, who penned an article in The Economist magazine this month saying Charles was a “good bloke”.

“His enduring dedication to the environment and sustainability strikes a chord with young people and his wry self-deprecation is equally endearing,” Turnbull wrote, while maintaining Australia needed an Australian head of state.

A source associated with the ARM, who asked to remain anonymous to speak frankly, said of Foster and Peris’ leadership: “They’re active, they’re moving, and that’s a very good thing – but they’re clearly shifting the whole thing a little to the left.”

Federal Labor MPs have been quiet on the republic as the government focuses on the immediate constitutional debate over an Indigenous Voice to parliament.

Albanese said this month that a republic referendum was not imminent and was appropriate to recite the pledge because Australia remained constitutionally tied to Britain.

Assistant Minister for the Republic Matt Thistlethwaite – who is advancing the push behind the scenes – has not posted on social media about a republic since March.

Meanwhile, the ABC’s coverage of the coronation was criticised by monarchist and Liberal MP Julian Leeser. The broadcast was hosted by presenters Julia Baird and Jeremy Fernandez, whose panel of guests, including Leeser and ABC host Stan Grant, an Indigenous man who has spoken about the impact of dispossession, debated the relevance of the monarchy to modern Australia.

Co-chairs of the Australian Republic Movement Craig Foster and Nova Peris.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Leeser said on Monday the broadcaster was wrong to include just one supporter of the monarchy.

“I think the ABC’s audience would have been disappointed by the lack of balance,” he said in a Facebook post.

An ABC spokesperson emphasised programs on the broadcaster’s streaming service, iview, that highlighted the lives of the new King and Queen.

The spokesperson said its coronation coverage featured a wide range of guests with different perspectives and hearing from Indigenous Australians in the year of the Voice referendum was crucial.

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