Love for young royals wounds republicans

A Newspoll reveals support for a republic has fallen to its lowest level in 25 years — thanks largely to Prince Harry and ­Meghan.

Monarchists Alex Baird, Abby Donaldson and Will Jefferies at St John's College, University of Sydney. Picture: Ryan OSland

Support for a republic has fallen to its lowest level in 25 years — thanks largely to Prince Harry and ­Meghan fuelling a dramatic shift in ­national sentiment — with ­almost half of Australian voters opposed to cutting ties with the British monarchy.

An exclusive Newspoll conducted for The Australian following last month’s royal visit by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex shows fewer than one in seven people claimed to have a strong attachment to change.

The number of pro-repub­licans has taken a sharp turn downward, with just 40 per cent still in favour of change now compared with 50 per cent at the time of the previous royal visit, by Prince Charles in April.

The results from the special poll of 1802 voters nationally ­coincides with Bill Shorten’s ­announcement that Labor would hold a $160 million plebiscite on the republic in the next term of parliament if elected.

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The Newspoll, however, suggests that if a plebiscite were to be held today based on the same question — “are you personally in favour or against Australia ­becoming a republic” — the case for change would be lost.

The drop in support represents the sharpest movement in sentiment of any poll taken since 1995, and the first time the number of Australians opposed to a republic have outnumbered those in favour since the referendum in 1999.

Suggesting that enthusiasm was waning even among the fiercest advocates of a republic, the poll showed just 15 per cent claimed to be strongly in favour compared with 25 per cent in April and almost 40 per cent in 2001.

Even Greens voters were ­almost evenly divided on the issue — 46 per cent in favour to 41 per cent opposed — with Labor supporters most likely to be pro-republican.

The poll will increase pressure on Australian Republic Movement chairman Peter FitzSimons, who has seen support for the ­republic decline since he assumed the role in 2015.

He told The Australian last month he would “stand down in a heartbeat’’ if he believed someone else could do a better job. “I will steer by one star; what can get the republic over the line,’’ he said.

Support for a republic was strongest in the younger demographic of 18 to 34-year-olds, but more people aged 35-49 were ­opposed as were an overwhelming number of the over-50s.

They also conflict with claims by the Australian Republican Movement that there was an “appetite” for a break from the monarchy.

Labor’s spokesman for an Australian head of state, Matt Thistlethwaite, yesterday said that if Mr Shorten was elected, there would be a national vote in the first term of a Labor government to gauge support for a ­republic before discussions shifted to a referendum.

The cost of the national plebiscite would be $160m, with Mr Thistlethwaite saying the question would be put: “Do you support an Australian republic with an Australian head of state?”

Prince Harry and Meghan in Sydney last month. Picture: Courier Mail

“If that is approved then we will begin the process of consulting and working with the public to develop a model. The discussion about the powers of the head of state — that would all be developed into a proposal that would go to a referendum,” Mr Thistlethwaite said.

Former prime minister and staunch monarchist Tony Abbott accused Mr Shorten of threatening “constitutional vandalism”.

“If we are going to change the Constitution, we have to have a referendum … the idea of having a plebiscite before working out what change you want is an exercise in constitutional vandalism,” he told The Australian.

“It is an expensive sneak attack on the Constitution. What the republicans need to do is work out what sort of republic they want and then have a referendum.”

University of Sydney student Will Jefferies, 19, said it was not just the fresh, youthful faces of William, Harry, Kate and ­Meghan that had lured his generation away from the republican movement.

“The baby boomer generation detested tradition and now our generation wants to push back against our parents’ generation and by appreciating the monarchy and conservatism, it’s the new counter-culture,” said Mr Jefferies, the university’s Monarchist Society vice-president.

Fellow student Abby Donaldson said she and many of her friends loved the royals for their charity work.

“We’ve grown up in a generation where that have been no scandals surrounding the royal family and so what we’ve been able to see is their ties to charity and how important is, for example, Will and Kate talking about mental health,” she said.

Additional reporting: Emily Ritchie