King Charles’ ‘consternation’ over threat of Australia republic
A leading royal correspondent says the royals query if Albanese has ‘his priorities right’ in pressing for a republic referendum if he secures a second term.
One of Britain’s leading royal correspondents has revealed there is “consternation” about whether Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has “got his priorities right” in pressing for a republic referendum if he secures a second term.
Camilla Tominey, who is a long time royal correspondent, associate editor of London’s Telegraph, and a radio show host on GB News, told a gathering of the Foreign Press Association in London on Tuesday that a King Charles reign has not lost any power compared to that of the seven decade reign of Queen Elizabeth, and weighed in on Australia’s view of the monarchy.
“I don’t think he’s losing his power (in Australia),’’ said Ms Tominey, adding “I mean, I think as well there’s a bit of consternation about whether Albanese has got his priorities straight when people are struggling to pay their bills, there’s a war in Ukraine and other people have probably got more pressing matters. If Australia is anything like Britain, people right now are more worried about pot holes in the road roads and whether they can get an NHS appointment.”
Ms Tominey, who first broke the story about the relationship between Prince Harry and Meghan and has deep sources in royal circles, said that while Republicanism has always been “a big thing’’ in Australia, the bigger question for Australians is what replaces the King as head of state?
She said: “What kind of president does Australia want? And equally I think from the royal perspective, there’s a difference between the realms and the Commonwealth.’’
She said the Commonwealth as a League of Nations is seeing nations queuing up to join, reflecting a fear of Chinese and Russian supremacy in the Pacific, as well a degree of ambiguity about what India is doing.
But as regarding republicanism, she said: “I mean, what can the royals do? The royals will have to say that we’re here for as long as these countries want us. People will look to Barbados but they also have to ask themselves, was that a decision by the people or politicians? The interesting thing about that decision is there wasn’t a referendum. The public weren’t asked to decide.”
In switching to a republic in 2021, Barbados transferred the responsibilities of the Governor-General to a new president, elected by parliament.
When asked if Australia should become a republic, Ms Tominey said she would be sad if that eventuated.
“There’s so many Brits over in Australia and so many Australians in Britain. And what’s the tie that binds? I mean, it’s the love of beer, of cooked meat, and indeed the royal family.”
In the wide ranging briefing, Ms Tominey defended the British press coverage of the Harry and Meghan controversies, pushing back on any suggestion that there was antagonism and bias against the California-based couple, and said Harry was wrong in suggesting there was “paparazzi” intimidation of the pair.
She said the fact Netflix producers had to source paparazzi pictures from events nothing to do with the couple showed the true state of affairs.
Ms Tominey said the press had a duty to report on Harry and Meghan because “they have done so much on Oprah, in the Netflix series and then in (Harry’s book) Spare’’.
She added: “Just because a headline is negative doesn’t make it wrong, racist or bigoted.’’
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