Peter Dutton in for a fiver in row over banknote

Peter Dutton has backed King Charles III to replace the Queen on the $5 note and slammed the Albanese government for considering dumping the British monarch from the banknote.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tracey Nearmy

Peter Dutton has backed King Charles III to replace the Queen on the $5 note and slammed the Albanese government for considering dumping the British monarch from the banknote.

The Opposition Leader said Anthony Albanese needed to commit to printing new $5 notes with effigies of the King, arguing it was not appropriate to change the currency unless Australia became a republic.

Mr Dutton lashed out at ­Assistant Treasury Minister ­Andrew Leigh for leaving the ­option open to replacing the monarch on the $5 note.

“I’d be surprised if the Prime Minister supported Andrew Leigh,” he told 2GB radio.

“I’d be disappointed if he did because if we’re a republic at some stage, then that’s a decision for the Australian people to make. But we’re with our current arrangements at the moment and we should honour those arrangements and that includes in relation to the $5 note.

“If you’re going to change something, well, argue it down the track, but we’re not a republic yet and I think the Australian public will have a strong view about this issue, probably stronger than they have in the past.”

Dr Leigh on Tuesday said the King’s effigy would appear on coins from next year but the $5 note would be a future decision for government.

“It is a conversation that will take place in government. There’s no rush about it,” he said.

“As I understand, the decision to include the Queen’s face on the $5 note was about her personally rather than her status as monarch.

“That transition isn’t automatic. We’ll have a sensible conversation within governments and make an appropriate ­announcement in due course.”

After the period of national mourning, the Australian Republic Movement will call for the late Queen’s image to be removed from the $5 note while also urging the government to reconsider using King Charles III’s image on coins from next year.

Greens First Nations spokeswoman Lidia Thorpe called for the Queen’s effigy on the $5 note to be replaced with a tribute to ­Aboriginal actor Jack Charles, who died this week.

“We just lost a king in our own country, who was subjected to colonial violence from the moment he was born,” Senator Thorpe told The Australian.

“We owe it to him, and First Nations people, to remember King Jack Charles and end the Stolen Generations once and for all.

“Uncle Jack is a great can­didate for the $5 note.”

Ahead of leaving for London on Thursday, Mr Albanese poured cold water on calls for a dual referendum on the voice to parliament and the republic in this term of parliament.

“The idea that you would have multiple debates at once is, I think, not feasible,” he said.

“I’ve made my priorities clear and that is what we have a mandate for and that is what I intend to do.

“Getting any constitutional change in this country is very ­difficult. We know that that’s the case.”

Australian Republic Movement founding chairman Thomas Keneally said the nation was unlikely to have its own head of state “very soon”, backing the government for prioritising an Indigenous voice to parliament.