This grotesquely disrespectful and rude ideological snub to courageous Charles is an insult to real Australians, says TERRY BARNES
King Charles and Queen Camilla’s brief visit to Australia on Friday will be his 16th to the country since he spent six months here as a schoolboy way back in 1966.
Australians have been looking forward to it for months. If anything, there’s disappointment that, because of the King’s cancer treatment, it won’t be a full-on royal tour and has been limited to just Sydney and the capital, Canberra.
There’s no doubt the royal couple are very welcome. An opinion poll commissioned by republican Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers found that one in four support the monarchy, and Charles and Camilla personally, more favourably since the King succeeded our late Queen two years ago.
Yes, Australian republicans have tried to promote their cause. The Australian Republican Movement’s former co-chair, activist and former Crystal Palace footballer Craig Foster made a point of showing he was invited to the New South Wales official reception for the royal couple by tweeting the invitation – only to brag he’d snubbed the King and Queen by turning it down.
King Charles and Queen Camilla’s brief visit to Australia on Friday will be his 16th to the country since he spent six months there as a schoolboy in 1966
Because of the King’s cancer treatment, it won’t be a full-on royal tour and has been limited to just Sydney and the capital, Canberra
So far, so predictable. Yet, disgracefully, all of Australia’s six state premiers have done likewise. Each has rejected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s invitation to attend the Australian government’s formal royal reception in Canberra.
All found convenient excuses for not attending, even though they would have been invited months ago. True, the Queensland premier is in the middle of an election campaign he’s likely to lose, and the New South Wales premier is accompanying the King in Sydney.
But the others? Too busy with trade missions and cabinet meetings, while the Western Australia premier could only claim, pathetically, ‘other commitments’.
The worst offender is Victoria’s leader, a mediocre performer called Jacinta Allan. Before she became premier last year, Allan was the minister who botched the state’s successful bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games then reneged on holding them – and has had to fork out nearly £104 million to Glasgow to take over.
It’s one thing for the likes of the Craig Foster to snub the King and Queen (attention-seeking activists). But it is deplorable for state premiers to follow suit, not least because they swore to ‘be faithful and bear true allegiance’ to the monarch.
All but one of these state leaders belong to the republican Labor Party, . But the King is still their constitutional ‘boss’, and it’s common courtesy to show up to meet the King and Queen, not just for their governments, but for all the people of the state they represent.
Such ideological churlishness in the face of a royal visitor who not only is Australia’s head of state, but is personally courageous in making the trip in the face of his serious health challenges, is grotesquely disrespectful.
What’s even harder to grasp is that, when the future of the monarchy in Australia seems more assured than it’s been for decades, popularity-hungry politicians are so out of step with public opinion that they contrive vague excuses to avoid their loyal duty.
Such rudeness, so different to the royal couple’s grace and dignity, won’t be forgotten by Australian voters in a hurry. Charles and Camilla are better than the lot of them.
Terry Barnes is an Australian political writer and commentator.
