Elizabeth II's death revived calls for Australia to choose its head of state. But in the town of Windsor, the status quo enjoys strong support.
“Australia is probably going to go away from the monarchy," he added somberly between sips of Iron Jack lager."And I don’t think that’s a good thing for our country.”over whether countries should remove the monarch as their head of state. For some, the accession of the less popular King Charles III — extending the reign of the House of Windsor — has sparked discussions of colonial history and what independence truly means.But Australia has been here before.
Colonized by Britain in the late 18th century, Australia became a sovereign nation in 1901 but retained the monarch as its head of state. The crown plays a limited and largely ceremonial role, but it nonetheless became controversial in 1975 when the queen’s representative in Australia, the governor-general, exercised his power to dissolve a gridlocked Parliament, triggering a constitutional crisis and stoking republican sentiment.
“On the one hand, the death of the monarch and the automatic accession of a new king without any action being taken at all in Australia is a little confronting,” she said. “We would like to think we control these things in Australia in a political way, so that may start people thinking about more about a republic. And also the loss of a well respected queen might seem an appropriate end of an era and time to start thinking about change.
Yet, Elizabeth’s death has also stirred some royal nostalgia in its far-flung former colony, she said, and the Australian ethos of giving someone “a fair go,” or opportunity, means many here will be reluctant to write off the new king.Albanese, who is in England for the queen’s funeral, has said that now is a time for mourning, not for debating whether Australia becomes a republic.
Referendums rarely succeed in Australia, and the last time one did was nearly half a century ago. There is a sense of political inertia in this wealthy and stable country, where preferential voting pushes governments to the center and administrations are often voted out — due to mistakes — rather than in.
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