Well-travelled Anthony Albanese to give Commonwealth leaders’ summit a wide berth

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will skip this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Rwanda, sending his deputy Richard Marles instead.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will skip this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese will skip this year’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The new Prime Minister, a ­republican, has decided not to ­attend the meeting of the leaders of the 54 nations of the Commonwealth, which will be held in the Rwandan capital of Kigali from June 20-26.

Instead, he will send Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles. Mr ­Albanese’s decision not to attend comes at the same time as the ­nations of the Commonwealth, including Australia, are celebrating the Queen’s 70-year reign.

It is unusual for an Australian prime minister not to attend CHOGM, particularly given that the meeting has fallen in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year. The Commonwealth represents 2.6 billion people, almost a third of the world’s population.

The meeting, usually held every two years, is taken seriously by the ageing monarch, whose last trip overseas was to attend CHOGM in Malta in 2015. Now aged 96 years and frail, she will be represented in Rwanda by her son, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

Up to 10,000 delegates are ­expected to attend the event, which will discuss issues such as climate change, trade, human rights and Commonwealth co-operation. The last CHOGM was held in 2018 in London, and was attended by Australia’s then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, also a staunch republican. Other attendees that year ­included Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, India’s Narendra Modi and British prime minister Theresa May.

A number of Pacific nations are also members of the Commonwealth, including Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Vanuatu, and will ­potentially send their heads of state to the meeting.

The new Labor government has started its term in office with high-powered visits across Asia and the Pacific to shore up its diplomatic ties with the region, in a bid to counter the rising influence of China.

The Weekend Australian was told Mr Albanese was ambivalent about attending CHOGM.

Since being elected he has had a demanding travel schedule, ­including high-level meetings with the Quad partners, US President Joe Biden, Mr Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, for which he flew out of Australia hours after being sworn in. He leaves for talks in Jakarta with Indonesian Prime Minister Joko Widodo on ­Sunday.

“Richard Marles will be representing the Prime Minister at CHOGM,’’ Mr Albanese’s spokeswoman said.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles will represent Australia at this year’s CHOGM. Picture: Saeed Khan/AFP

The CHOGM secretariat did not respond to questions about which world leaders would be in attendance.

At the 2011 CHOGM meeting in Perth, attended by the Queen and Prince Philip, world leaders including then-prime minister Julia Gillard ticked off on the historic decision to change ­succession rules for the royal family.

The agreement scrapped the centuries-old rule which allowed firstborn sons to inherit the throne ahead of their older sisters. Royals married to Catholics were also allowed to inherit the throne for the first time.

The rule change required the approval of the 16 countries of the realm which have the Queen as head of state, including Australia.

Mr Albanese has appointed Australia’s first assistant minister for the republic, Matt Thistlethwaite, in a sign the government intends to pursue a change to the Constitution in order to make Australia a republic.

However, given the popularity of the Queen, it seems Australia would be unlikely to make any change to constitution ­arrangements until after Prince Charles, a more polarising figure, ascends the throne.