Such is the interest in Australia in the British royal family – and by
definition our own as well – that a fascinating piece in The Los Angeles Times on the cost of running the monarchy was hardly mentioned in our own media.

To keep the members of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy happy,
let them know that keeping the queen of Australia costs the British
public 61 pence per taxpayer per year – or
$86 million. This is what it costs to produce a B-grade Hollywood
movie and the comparison will not be lost on many people.

Cries of “it doesn’t cost us a cent” will be heard up and down the
purple and gold corridors on the upper Australian classes – who
conveniently forget that keeping up the eight viceroys, whose names
are largely unknown, representing the foreign, non-resident, unelected
head of state, costs the Australian taxpayer hundreds of millions of
dollars each year.

While we insist on keeping the outdated, irrelevant colonial
system of government, the cost will rise sharply every year, overtaking
what the hapless British pay for the largely ignored and ridiculed soap
opera known as the House of Windsor.