Former Socceroo Foster likely new face for republic push

Craig Foster is firm favourite to take over as the public face of the Australian Republic Movement.

Former Australian soccer player Craig Foster is firm favourite to take over as the public face of the Australian Republic Movement. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Dylan Coker

Retired soccer player and refugee activist Craig Foster has emerged as a firm favourite to take over as the public face of the Australian Republic Movement following the departure of its chair Peter FitzSimons, who is stepping down after seven years in the role.

The former Socceroo is seen as a popular and widely respected potential successor to the sometimes divisive FitzSimons, and someone likely to attract funding and younger supporters.

Earlier this year, Mr Foster appeared in a campaign for the ARM, telling the royal family in a video address: “We can take it from here.”

“It’s time the Australian ­people chose one of our own to represent us as our head of state,” he said. “Someone accountable to us. One of us, for us, by us.”

The 53-year-old endorsed the model of an Australian head of state elected for a five-year term in which, if no party could keep a workable majority in the parliament, the head of state would have the authority to call an election to break the gridlock.

The model differs significantly from the one adopted ahead of the failed 1999 republic referendum, when the ARM proposed an Australian head of state elected by the parliament.

Prominent Australians have held leadership roles over the past two decades, including Malcolm Turnbull and Joe Hockey, but the ARM is keen to inject fresh blood into the movement after the Queen’s death.

FitzSimons has said he wanted to hand the baton to younger, more diverse activists. The author and former rugby union player had indicated previously he would step down before any referendum was put to the ­nation.

Peter FitzSimons.

The 61-year-old is married to TV presenter Lisa Wilkinson and the couple regularly throw parties at their north shore mansion, a lifestyle seen by some in the republican movement as unhelpful to the cause.

FitzSimons’ contribution was lauded by his predecessor, former West Australian premier Geoff Gallup, who told The Australian: “He made a very valuable contribution and those of us who are republicans should be thanking him for it.”

Australia’s first Minister for the Republic, Matt Thistlewaite, also paid tribute: “Fitz hasn’t shied away from the daily political rucks and media mauls needed … to help advance the debate on a local head of state and an Australian republic,” he said.

The conservative Spectator Australia magazine greeted the news by tweeting: “It is with deep sadness and regret that constitutional monarchists mourn the loss of their greatest asset …”

Australian Monarchist League chair Eric Abetz said republicans had wrongly assumed that when the Queen died, support for the monarchy would collapse. “Peter FitzSimons was nearly a caricature of the elitist republican movement - out of touch with the sentiments and aspirations of Australians,” he said, predicting Fitz­Simons’ departure would have little impact on the movement.

FitzSimons said he had always been bemused by the “elite” tag. “Monarchists stand in front of the most elite institution on earth, the English royal family, and shout at approaching republicans, ‘Get back, you elitists!’ ”