King Charles and his current wife have not stepped foot in Australia or New Zealand since 2018. It’s been even longer for Prince William and Kate – April will be the tenth anniversary of their last tour Down Under. Charles and Camilla were supposed to spend their first two years traveling to all of the British realms and all of the British Commonwealth countries. They have not. Personally, I think Charles would have been perfectly willing to go on a travel blitz, but Rishi Sunak told him to stay home, and Camilla told him she doesn’t want to travel anymore, now that she’s queen. All of which should have meant that William and Kate would be sent to all of these countries to represent the crown. Except W&K refused to do so. Well, long story short, the palace has been trying to hype Charles and Camilla’s October 2024 trip to Australia for months now, and finally there’s a confirmation from Oz:

The King will visit Australia later this year, Anthony Albanese, the country’s prime minister, has confirmed. The King and Queen are expected to visit the country as part of a long-haul trip in late October, when they attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.

A government spokesperson told The Australian newspaper that “the prime minister enjoys a warm relationship with the King, and looks forward to welcoming His Majesty to Australia later this year”.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment. It is understood that travel plans are at a very early stage. The visit will be the King’s first to Australia since his accession and the first by a ruling monarch since Elizabeth II in October 2011.

It will come at a sensitive moment for the Royal family, amid increasing speculation that Australia will become a republic. The most recent opinion poll, held just after Elizabeth II’s death, suggested that 46 per cent of Australians favoured a republic, while 54 per cent preferred the current system of government.

Mr Albanese voted in a referendum in 1999 for an Australian citizen to replace the British monarch as the country’s head of state. The results were similar to the recent opinion poll, with nearly 55 per cent voting to maintain the current system and 45 per cent favouring a republic.

Ahead of the King’s Coronation in May, Mr Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “I haven’t changed my position on that and I’ve made that very clear. I want to see an Australian as Australia’s head of state…That doesn’t mean that you cannot have respect for the institution, which is the system of government that we have. And I believe, as the Australian prime minister, I have a particular responsibility to represent the nation in a way that respects the constitutional arrangements, which are there.”

[From The Telegraph]

Aussie monarchists are apparently mad at Albanese because he’s a republican who shows respect to the British monarchy, but… doesn’t that just make Albanese good at his job? If I was in Albanese’s position, I’d want the royals to visit too – Charles, Camilla, William and Kate do not travel well and they all insist on neo-colonialist staging and ludicrous setpieces, all of which will accelerate Albanese’s fight for a referendum to ditch the monarchy. Albanese could not find a better reason for an Australian republic than Charles and Camilla. It will also be interesting to see if Charles and Camilla travel anywhere else before this October trip. Like… shouldn’t C&C visit Canada? My God.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.