Former MP claims King Charles will not make Australia a republic

• Julie Bishop, a former foreign minister for Australia, has said that Australia will not become a republic while King Charles III is in power.
• The Australian people are loath to change if no good reason is demonstrated – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, she said.

King Charles III took over as ruler of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms, after his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in September.

Paul Keating, a former prime minister of Australia, said last month that the new King, who is 73, might give up the UK monarch’s claim on Australia because the royal family hoped that the country would become a republic after the 1999 referendum.

But Julie Bishop, a former foreign minister for Australia, has said that Australia will not become a republic while King Charles is in power.

From 2007 to 2018, Bishop was the deputy leader of the Liberal Party. He said that Australians couldn’t agree on what should replace the monarchy.

She said, “I don’t actually think the question of Australia being a republic is attached to the British monarch as such, it’s actually the political system (a constitutional monarchy), and the Australian people have shown that they are loath to change if no good reason is demonstrated – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

“I was quite involved in the last time we had a referendum on this topic in 1998/1999 and there was so much disagreement as to what would replace a constitutional monarchy – a direct elect president, a president elected by the Parliament – there was just no agreement,” she detailed.

Also Read

Meghan Markle never chose to join the Royal Family to “learn the ropes”

Meghan Markle never wanted to "learn the ropes" and jumped into everything,...

Advertisement