Australia’s first ever Assistant Minister for the Republic has conceded ‘now is not the right time’ to discuss cutting ties with the monarchy.
In the wake of a crushing referendum defeat on the proposed Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Matt Thistlethwaite said it would ‘certainly’ be harder to convince the Australian public to support yet another constitutional change.
But, that doesn’t mean his role is now null and void.
Mr Thistlethwaite said the Labor party ‘has a longer term vision for Australia as a mature and independent nation’ and still has ambitions for the country to sever ties with King Charles III and Queen Camilla.
But he said: ‘It’s in our platform that we begin a discussion with the Australian people around having one of our own as our head of State at some time in the future.
‘Now is not the right time for that.’
Mr Thistlethwaite said the Labor party ‘has a longer term vision for Australia as a mature and independent nation’ and remains committed to republic ambitions
While the PM hopes Australia will one day become a republic, he pledged loyalty to the King
In the longer term, the Albanese government’s plans remains the same: to ‘begin a conversation with the Australian people about our independence and maturity’. This includes electing, or choosing, our own head of state.
And Mr Thistlethwaite argued this shouldn’t be an entirely unfamiliar or unexpected shift for the nation, given ‘we are no longer British subjects, we don’t have British passports anymore, we don’t have God Save the King as our national anthem’.
‘We’re now Australians and we govern ourselves and we make our own decisions and we do that well.’
Like senior Labor ministers, Mr Thistlethwaite said the cost of living crisis, and alleviating pressure on Australian households, remains the government’s top priority.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has never shied away from his desire for Australia to separate from the monarchy and become a republic.
He flagged those intentions when he created the role of Assistant Minister for the Republic for Mr Thistlethwaite following his election in 2022.
Mr Albanese swore allegiance to King Charles at his coronation in May in the wake of the Queen’s death, and despite being a ‘life-long republican’, insisted he has ‘a great deal of respect’ for the King
Many supporters of the movement had long believed the death of the Queen would be the catalyst for Australia to seriously consider moving away from the monarchy.
But Mr Albanese swore allegiance to King Charles at his coronation in May in the wake of the Queen’s death, and despite being a ‘life-long republican’, insisted he has ‘a great deal of respect’ for the King.
And he assured members of the public both in Australia and abroad a referendum on whether Australia should become a republic is out of the question for the near future.
‘What I don’t want to do is to be a prime minister who presides over just constitutional debates,’ he said at the time.
Hopes of a republic referendum were tempered after the crushing October 14 defeat, when more than nine million Australians voted against enshrining a Voice to Parliament.
Every single state and the Northern Territory voted down the proposal. The Australian Capital Territory was the only Yes jurisdiction in the country.
And while support for a republic has fluctuated over the decades, there will be a strong No campaign which would rally against the proposal.
Failing to get bipartisan support and the effective campaigning of the No side helped to down the Voice to Parliament, sparking questions about whether the PM would be willing to go down the same path for a republic referendum.