We can all stop rounding our vowels and fawning now. The prince has gone home. But I wonder whether something else has gone with him, namely the sense of inevitability that Australia would become a republic in our lifetimes.
The Palace has pulled off an extraordinary PR coup. Prince William has charmed his way into Australian life on his first real visit. His tour has shown how unprepared republicans are for the next generation of royals and suggests that unless those of us who care about Australia becoming a republic rethink our approach we’re destined to be a constitutional monarchy for many more decades.
In scenes reminiscent of the Queen’s royal tour of 1954, oldies, teens and all sorts in between, mobbed the guy. The low point was hearing one 80-something bloke saying he wouldn’t wash his arm for a week after shaking the Prince’s hand. Everyone went a bit gaga, particularly the media, which seemed as smitten as those housewives from the suburbs who seemed to turn into cougars in the presence of royalty. That was just weird.
But there’s another consequence.
After nearly three decades of seeing only Charles — the rather eccentric and bumbling heir apparent — as out future head of state, we’ve suddenly been presented with a picture of someone who even rusted-on republicans have to admit is likeable and surprisingly down to earth.
You’ve got to hand it to the team behind this tour. In just three days of carefully judged media performances they’ve crafted a sense of someone who is part-social worker, part-statesman, part-soldier, part-sportsman, part-speech maker. I can imagine lots of republican waverers thinking that he’s more appealing than half the crusty candidates you’d imagine fronting up for Australian President.
He managed nothing but good publicity. No one has asked whether it is strange that he’s waited nearly three decades to visit the country he was born to rule. He never had to address whether it is appropriate for him to back Britain against Australia in its bid to host the 2018 Rugby World Cup.
This should suggest to the Republican Movement that it’s dealing with a phenomenon and that it can no longer assume that a republic is going to be easily won.
The cause was not helped yesterday by the performance of David Donovan from the Australian Republican Movement. I reckon he’s misread the mood and underestimated what he’s dealing with. Last night on The 7.30 Report he came across as one of those dislikeable backroom party branch stackers.
He said: “We don’t think Prince William’s visit is very relevant. I mean Prince William is not even the next in line to the Australian or English throne, him coming over here, we think, is really nothing much more than a PR exercise. This is a person who is only 27 years old. He has no real major achievements or experience in life that is of great benefit to Australians.”
This may be true, although, personally I don’t know many people with an arts history degree who can fly a helicopter. But what it ignores is the fact that many Australians find royalty alluring and the fact that he’s second in line for the throne, lacks achievement and experience, is young and a foreigner is of no consequence.
If Malcolm Turnbull was running the Australian Republican Movement, the first thing he would have done in the interview was acknowledge how charming the guy is. He would have said something like “Yep, no doubt about it, the young prince has loads of charisma and it’s going to be a tough battle to convince some people that despite this, we need to jettison the monarchy.”
The savvy thing to do is acknowledge the obvious. The challenge then is to win over the very people the Palace has won over. You start that by demonstrating that republicans can be charming, too.
In just three days, Prince William has shown that his visit is very relevant. He has set the cause of the Australian Republic back many years, that is unless republicans get much more clever in response.
Really, Andrew, can you imagine the fuss if the US President, along with his wife and two daughters, were to visit Australia. The media, the crowds, the fawning politicians, people generally falling over themselves, it would all put William’s visit in the shade. Would that in turn have any bearing on our constitutional future, demonstrating our commitment to the American presidential system? Of course not. Many Australians just get off on celebrity. You included, it seems.
This is spot on. The reality is that people are pretty shallow. Give them a nice person who charms and has the fortunate legacy of being the son of a much loved mother, and we will stay with the monarchy. Had he been like his father… maybe there would be a growth in the republican movement. But people do get old. And Prince Charming will one day be old and as imperfect as the rest of us. Then his adoring followers might back off or be more cautious.
But you are right when you make us think about who we will end up with for a President if we went that way. Who? A retired Prime Minister or other prominent politician who never got the top job? John Howard? Malcolm Turnbull? A Bob Hawke? Maybe Bill Hayden or Malcolm Frazer? Or a Gough? Actually Natasha S-D would be good. Or Christine Milne. But what chance a competent women from a small party? Maybe a rich business person who (unlike William) would never visit fire victims or give a sh-t for the poor?
The truth is that there will be some monarchs who are terrific and others who are terrible. William might be one of those terrific ones. And there will be some Presidents who will be terrific and others who will be terrible. We need to soberly evaluate the two systems and embrace the one that is more appropriate for Australia in our contemporary day and age.
What a joke, to think the media’s fawning, obsequious genuflection was anything but calculated, to set the tone for the visit and catch the population up in a wave of royal fervour. There’s nothing spontaneous about this, it’s all PR, and it’s how the monarchy has survived for centuries.
Does anyone really think that becoming a Republic will fix any of the problems Australia faces – climate change, for example? I don’t think, in the various rude comments about the Queen, her family, and the monarchy in general, anyone has actually blamed HRH for that, but give them chance.
The issues, problems, challenges, Australia faces, have nothing to do with whether it is or isn’t a Republic. But I know this: the change would cost a lot of money, energy, time and attention that should be spent on the real issues: climate change, ageing population and diminishing tax base, inequality and inequity, the health system, the education system, urban sprawl, shit public transport. You name it, it needs work. We don’t need a Republic. Coz that part ain’t broken.
The question is, why is the Palace so keen to knock Australian republicanism? Apparently the Queen thinks the Australian republic is inevitable. Why does the Palace care?