This is a sample of The Echidna newsletter sent out each weekday morning. To sign up for FREE, go to theechidna.com.au
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
It's hard to know what kind of welcome King Charles would get if he and his second wife stepped ashore. He is, after all, Charles the Third, by the Grace of God King of Australia and His other Realms and Territories.
Would there be a warm welcome or would it be treated with a complete ignoral (to use the marvellous word coined by the British politician George Brown)?
Possibly something in between.
It's hard to imagine that it would be as joyous as the welcome Australia gave his mum on February 3, 1954 when the radiant 27-year-old stepped ashore at Farm Cove on Sydney Harbour - and, by all accounts, the nation stopped.
Her arrival at the very place where Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag 165 years earlier attracted an estimated million onlookers in a city of 1.8 million. It was also the first televised event in Australian broadcasting history so who could have missed it?
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited 57 towns and cities in 58 days, travelling by car, plane, train and ship from Cairns in the north to Hobart in the south.
In those innocent times, the couple often toured in an open top car, just a few inches more than two arms lengths from crowds. Today, the security people would have nightmares.
Those days are gone in many ways.
King Charles does not have the adulation that the Queen built up over the 70 years and 214 days of her reign.
She became admired even by republicans. She was, republican former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said after her death, "an example to leaders everywhere to put their country, their job, the people they serve, first".
![King Charles III steps out, waves from Buckingham Palace after his coronation in May 2023. King Charles III steps out, waves from Buckingham Palace after his coronation in May 2023.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/XBxJDq6WLub2UphQ8wEq23/9b39251f-6e18-4b17-ac4c-6dfeadf9f64b.jpg/r0_64_2867_1682_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
And King Charles, who is reportedly planning a visit later this year, would be unlikely to land at a place so symbolic of British colonisation. The valued link with Britain in 1954 has become a source of anger and controversy for some.
There was a much more formal air for the Queen's succeeding visits than seems to fit with our times (Remember the hoo-ha when Paul Keating touched the Queen's back, though, admittedly, it may have been a hoo-ha confected by the British tabloids.)
King Charles recently fist-bumped with a West Indian cricketer. The Queen, I think, was not a fist-bumper.
And he and Queen Camilla would be greeted by a republican as his representative in Australia, and by a republican prime minister.
In 1954, the Queen was met (in the heat of the summer sun) by the prime minister in a black coat with tails. Robert Menzies' reverence - adulation, even - for the monarch was obvious. The glow inside him was almost visible. The Queen wore white gloves up to her elbows.
The Prime Minister today has already declared himself to be a "life-long republican", and the Governor-General has spoken of her admiration for republican Paul Keating and his aims when he was prime minister. "They were things that I really cared about. He wanted a republic, clearly," Samantha "Sam" Mostyn told the ABC.
But attitudes may not have shifted as much as you might think. There remains substantial support for King Charles continuing as the Australian head of state.
The reputable YouGov polling company asked last year "Should Australia remain a constitutional monarchy or become a republic?"
It said the answer was: "One in three Australians want the country to become a republic as soon as possible (32 per cent). A similar number want to remain a constitutional monarchy for the long term (35 per cent)."
By all accounts, Charles likes Australia. And he has actually lived here, spending a term at Timbertop, the rural campus of Geelong Grammar.
Mr Albanese had planned a referendum on the monarchy in his second term of office (if he gets one), but the failure of the vote on the Voice may have scuppered that aim.
And a visit by King Charles and the Queen might sink the idea of a republic even further.
HAVE YOUR SAY: Should King Charles come soon? Would his visit make a republic more or less likely? Send your opinions to echidna@theechidna.com.au
SHARE THE LOVE: If you enjoy The Echidna, forward it to a friend so they can sign up, too.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:
- The FBI has identified a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man as the suspected shooter behind an apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. The US Secret Service has confirmed that the person who fired multiple shots at the campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania was killed at the event.
- There is no tolerance for any criminal or bikie links infiltrating the union movement or construction sector, the federal workplace relations minister says in the wake of damning allegations. Tony Burke has asked his department to advise him on ministerial powers to respond to reports alleging bikies were acting as union delegates and links between construction projects and organised crime.
- Television's hyperactive court jester of physical fitness, Richard Simmons, who built a mini-empire in his trademark tank tops and short shorts has died, a day after turning 76.
THEY SAID IT: "The country is so timid. To come of age, Australia has to have a new and altogether different idea of itself." - Paul Keating.
YOU SAID IT: Garry wrote about the anger of the young and urged them to keep their fire of indignation going. They should resist cynicism.
You responded with some cynicism of your own.
John said: "I'm 80 and so looked forward to sensible and courageous leadership (even under Albo of whom I had little confidence). The corruption, mendacity and incompetence ushered into the Liberal Party reached its heights over the previous decade.
"Albo's and Marles' immediate and unquestioning embrace of Aukus warned us that timidity and lack of imagination would be the rule."
Murray was equally bleak: "Quite intentionally the education system has been dumbed down to the point where school pupils, humorously referred to as 'students', leave secondary school barely able to read or write."
David said: "Albanese started well, then it became all about the politics and not the policy. We need longer electoral cycles so governments have more time to get things done (or not )."
Graham injected a rare ray of hope: "I like to think that the 'woke' young people's vote is ever-increasing and WILL make a big difference in the world as well as here in Oz."