James Crisp
Fri, September 9, 2022
An image of the late Queen Elizabeth is projected on to the Sydney Opera House - Getty Images
Australia should replace the British monarch as head of state now that Queen Elizabeth II is dead, republicans said on Friday, as former colonies around the world consider ditching the last vestiges of the Empire.
The loss of the much-loved 96-year-old sovereign is ushering in a period of renewed debate in Commonwealth realm nations over whether to be led by King Charles III or one of their own citizens as president.
Adam Bandt, the leader of Australia’s Greens, was criticised for being insensitive after calling for his country to get rid of the monarchy in the same breath as tweeting his condolences.
He said: “Now Australia must move forward... We need a Treaty with First Nations people, and we need to become a Republic.”
Republicans in the country have been pushing to sever the historic link to the imperial past for the past two decades.
In May, just two days before the Platinum Jubilee celebrations began, newly elected prime minister Anthony Albanese boosted prospects for a referendum on whether to replace the late Queen as head of state.
Anthony Albanese, - Mick Tsikas/AP
The centre-Left leader, who has described Australia becoming a republic as “inevitable”, created the new role of “assistant minister for the republic” despite the referendum not being part of his manifesto.
But after her death, Mr Albanese shrugged the question off when asked if Australia should now become a republic.
“Today’s not a day for politics,” he told Radio National. “Today’s a day to pay tribute to the service of Queen Elizabeth.”
That debate is now taking place across the world, particularly in the Caribbean, where Barbados last year became a Republic, bringing 396 years of the British monarchy’s reign over the Caribbean island to an end.
Belize, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Kitts and Nevis have all indicated they plan to follow suit.
Andrew Holness, the Jamaican Prime Minister, is planning a referendum.
In his statement of condolences, he described Queen Elizabeth as the British sovereign and a “close friend” of Jamaica. He did not mention that she was Jamaica’s head of state.
Prince William with the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness in Kingston. During the Royal tour of the Caribbean, Holness made clear his country's intention to sever ties with the British monarchy - PA
The visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge in Jamaica in March was met with protests outside the British High Commission in Kingston - RICARDO MAKYN/AFP
An August survey showed 56 per cent of Jamaicans favoured removing the British monarch.
“Jamaica needs to free itself from the shackles of colonialism finally,” an official in the capital Kingston told The Telegraph.
“We want our own head of state and not one in a faraway place in Europe. Look now our people cannot even travel to this kingdom without a visa. How can that be fair when our head of state is in the UK? How do you make sense of that? It is now the right time or never.”
An official in Antigua shared similar sentiments.
“Antigua and a number of other Caribbean islands would ideally like to sever all ties with the now kingdom of the United Kingdom. I don’t think that with her passing that they will want to have a king as their head of state,” they told The Telegraph.
The official added: “The Queen kept everybody together in the Caribbean. She was well loved in the archipelago. Now there is real talk about proper independence where we can have our own head of state.”
‘A general movement toward republicanism’
Allen Chastanet, a former prime minister of St Lucia and now leader of the opposition, said that he backed what he said was a “general” movement toward republicanism in his country.
“I certainly at this point would support becoming a republic,” he said.
Members of the British Royal family made two separate trips to the Caribbean earlier this year. But they were confronted by massive protests at every stop of their tour and calls for reparations for Britain’s role in the slave trade.
The Duchess of Sussex’s allegations of racism within the Royal family have also hurt the monarchy’s reputation in the Caribbean countries.
In New Zealand, the public debate over replacing the monarchy would “build up quite a head of steam now”, Sir Don McKinnon, a former deputy prime minister and former secretary-general of the Commonwealth, told Radio New Zealand.
Last year, Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, said she believed her country would become a republic in her lifetime.
“I’ve been very clear that despite being a republican, I’m not of the view that in the here-and-now in my term of office, that this is something New Zealanders feel particularly strongly about,” Ms Ardern said at the time.
This week, Ms Ardern paid tribute to an “extraordinary” Queen as New Zealand entered a period of mourning for Her Majesty.
Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, has said that citizens are not interested in constitutional change, despite another poll in April showing a growing share of 51 per cent of his people saying the monarch should disappear in coming generations.
“She was one of my favourite people in the world,” Mr Trudeau said after the news of the monarch’s death broke.
A February poll found 49 per cent of respondents would prefer to have an elected head of state, with just 21 per cent saying they would rather keep the monarchy.
The survey found that 34 per cent of Canadians would prefer Prince William to take over as King rather than his father Charles, who was supported by just 17 per cent of the respondents.
When Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1953, Britain had more than 70 territories overseas but the Empire was in terminal decline.
At the time of her death she was the sovereign of 14 independent countries: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Charles' succession stirs Caribbean calls for reparations, removal of monarch as head of state
By Kate Chappell and Michela Moscufo
KINGSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The accession of King Charles to the British throne has stirred renewed calls from politicians and activists for former colonies in the Caribbean to remove the monarch as their head of state and for Britain to pay slavery reparations.
Charles succeeds his mother, Queen Elizabeth, who ruled for 70 years and died on Thursday afternoon.
The prime minister of Jamaica said his country would mourn Elizabeth, and his counterpart in Antigua and Barbuda ordered flags to half-staff until the day of her burial.
But in some quarters there are doubts about the role a distant monarch should play in the 21st century. Earlier this year, some Commonwealth leaders expressed unease at a summit in Kigali, Rwanda, about the passage of leadership of the 56-nation club from Elizabeth to Charles.
And an eight-day tour in March by now heir-to-the-throne Prince William and his wife, Kate, to Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas was marked by calls for reparation payments and an apology for slavery.
"As the role of the monarchy changes, we expect this can be an opportunity to advance discussions of reparations for our region," Niambi Hall-Campbell, a 44-year-old academic who chairs the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, said Thursday.
Hall-Campbell sent condolences to the Queen's family and noted Charles' acknowledgment of the "appalling atrocity of slavery" at a ceremony last year marking the end of British rule as Barbados became a republic.
She said she hopes Charles would lead in a way reflecting the "justice required of the times. And that justice is reparatory justice."
More than 10 million Africans were shackled into the Atlantic slave trade by European nations between the 15th and 19th centuries. Those who survived the brutal voyage were forced to labor on plantations in the Caribbean and the Americas.
Jamaican reparations advocate Rosalea Hamilton said Charles' comments at the Kigali conference about his personal sorrow over slavery offered "some degree of hope that he will learn from the history, understand the painful impact that many nations have endured 'til today" and address the need for reparations.
The new king did not mention reparations in the Kigali speech.
The Advocates Network, which Hamilton coordinates, published an open letter calling for "apologies and reparations" during William and Kate's visit.
The Queen's grandchildren have the chance to lead the reparations conversation, Hamilton added.
Jamaica's government last year announced plans to ask Britain for compensation for forcibly transporting an estimated 600,000 Africans to work on sugar cane and banana plantations that created fortunes for British slave holders.
"Whoever will take over the position should be asked to allow the royal family to pay African people reparations," said David Denny, general secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, from Barbados.
"We should all work towards removing the royal family as head of state of our nations," he said.
Jamaica has signaled it may soon follow Barbados in ditching royal rule. Both remain members of the Commonwealth.
An August survey showed 56% of Jamaicans favor removing the British monarch as the head of state.
Mikael Phillips, an opposition member of Jamaica's parliament, in 2020 filed a motion backing the removal.
"I am hoping as the prime minister had said in one of his expressions, that he would move faster when there is a new monarch in place," Phillips said on Thursday.
Allen Chastanet, a former St. Lucia prime minister and now leader of the opposition, told Reuters he backed what he said was a "general" movement toward republicanism in his country.
"I certainly at this point would support becoming a republic," he said.
(Reporting by Kate Chappell in Kingston; additional reporting by Robertson Henry in St. Vincent and Michela Moscufo in New York; Writing by Julia Symmes Cobb; Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Leslie Adler)
LONDON (Reuters) - During Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign, republican rumblings surfaced on occasion, but the affection and respect she enjoyed meant that the movement to do away with the monarchy struggled to make a lasting impression.
Now, with her death and the accession of her less popular son Charles, republicans believe that the end of the 1,000-year-old institution could be a step closer.
"The queen is the monarchy for most people. After she dies the future of the institution is in serious jeopardy," Graham Smith, chief executive of campaign group Republic, said earlier this year.
"Charles may inherit the throne, but he won't inherit the deference and respect afforded the queen."
Smith and like-minded anti-monarchists argue that the royal family has no place in a modern democracy, and is staggeringly expensive to maintain.
Royal officials say the institution costs each Briton less than 1 pound ($1.15) annually, but Republic says its true cost to the nation each year is about 350 million pounds.
The overall wealth of the family is also hard to gauge due to the opaque nature of its finances and what it directly owns. A Reuters analysis in 2015 suggested it had nominal assets worth almost 23 billion pounds at the time.
Polls have consistently shown that the vast majority of Britons back the monarchy, with support for the queen herself running at similar or higher levels. Republicans accepted they had no chance of changing the system while she was alive.
But surveys have also shown support is slipping, especially among younger Britons, and that Charles is less popular.
Backing for the 73-year-old taking the throne has also fluctuated, with some polls suggesting that many people believed the throne should pass to his eldest son Prince William instead.
GENERATION GAME?
The new king's second wife Camilla also remains a divisive figure, surveys show, and the greater popularity of William and his wife Kate could help counter moves towards abolishing the monarchy in Britain and abroad.
Britain's mass-market newspapers have largely embraced the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are a regular feature on the front pages as they carry out royal and charitable duties across the country.
One former senior royal aide told Reuters the younger royals were more media savvy than the older generation, and that an enormous amount of planning and care went into ensuring their work and personality shone through.
In a rapidly changing world, the stability of an ancient institution like the monarchy was also something on which people could rely.
The aide said the royal family provided "sort of a ballast" to the country, especially in difficult times.
Yet even William and Kate are not immune to criticism, with a recent tour of the Caribbean overshadowed by protests over Britain's imperial past.
'BIG DIFFERENCE'
In the last few years, Republic has stepped up campaigning on social media and with billboards.
Smith and other republicans have long argued that when Britons face up to the reality of Charles as king then support for the monarchy as a whole will dwindle.
He has said that following the queen's funeral and before the coronation, he and other activists would vociferously push for there to be a referendum on the future of the institution.
"It is an opportunity to campaign, but it is not going to be an easy campaign," he said. "We are going have to work hard to get that referendum."
There is no clear path to removing the monarchy in Britain, which does not have a codified constitution that lays out the steps. Its opponents argue that if public opinion turns overwhelmingly against it, the royal family could not continue.
The only time the royal line was interrupted was in 1649, when King Charles I was tried for high treason, convicted and executed, ushering in a brief period of an English republic.
It ended in 1660 with the restoration of the monarchy, presaging the establishment of an institution with vastly reduced powers from what came before.
REBELLIOUS REALMS
It is not just in Britain that the monarchy's status could come under threat. Despite most of Britain's empire dissipating during Elizabeth's reign, Charles still becomes head of state of 14 other realms including Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The popularity and admiration for the queen had mostly kept a lid on republicanism, but the issue is now likely to reignite with renewed energy.
The decision of Barbados to ditch the queen as head of state in November, 2021 was seen as a boost for the republican cause, and others realms such as Jamaica and Belize have indicated they wanted to follow suit, with the royals saying they would not stand in their way.
"I want to say clearly, as I have said before, that each member's Constitutional arrangement, as republic or monarchy, is purely a matter for each member country to decide," Charles said at a Commonwealth summit in June this year.
"The benefit of long life brings me the experience that arrangements such as these can change, calmly and without rancour."
In Australia, 55 percent of voters backed keeping the monarchy in a referendum in 1999, but recent polls have given a contradictory picture on where sentiment currently lies.
A 2020 survey suggested 62% wanted an Australian head of state, with the accession of Charles considered key, while a poll in January 2021 found only 34% wanted a republic.
"I've got a lot of respect for the constitutional monarchy, and if it ain't broke, I don't see the need to fix it," former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said when Charles's second son Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, visited in 2018.
However, the decision of Harry and Meghan to quit royal duties in 2020, and later to criticise Buckingham Palace and accuse one unnamed royal of racism, could work against the royals.
Australia's centre-left Labor government named the country's first "assistant minister for the republic" when it came to power this June.
The Australian Republic Movement https://www.reuters.com/world/australian-republicans-offer-condolences-queen-call-debate-2022-09-09/ offered condolences on the queen's death but noted that she herself had backed Australia's right to become a fully independent nation during the 1999 referendum.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spoken in support of moving toward a republic. But on Friday he said: "Today's a day for one issue and one issue only, which is to pay tribute to Queen Elizabeth II."
In Canada, recent polls suggest about half of Canadians believe the country should end its ties to the monarchy with the death of Elizabeth.
However, experts say removing the monarchy from the Canadian constitution could prove difficult, perhaps stymieing any imminent moves towards a republic.
In New Zealand, where voters in a 2016 referendum rejected changing their national flag to remove the Union Jack - the flag of the United Kingdom - polls indicate a divided public, with younger people leaning towards a republic.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in March 2018 that she expected New Zealand would become a republic within her lifetime but it was not a matter that the government was prioritising.
Reacting to the queen's death on Thursday, Ardern https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/she-was-extraordinary-says-nz-pm-ardern-world-mourns-queen-2022-09-09/ said: "There is no doubt that a chapter is closing today...she was extraordinary."
(Editing by Mike Collett-White and Angus MacSwan)
Philippe Naughton
Fri, September 9, 2022
JILL GRALOW
Her body barely had time to get cold in its Balmoral bedchamber before the first rumbling came from a former British colony that Queen Elizabeth II should be the last English monarch allowed to reign over a distant realm.
Adam Bandt, leader of the opposition Greens party in Australia, used a tweeted message of condolence—“Rest in Peace Queen Elizabeth II”—to call on his country to “move forward” and become a republic.
Bandt was quickly slapped down by Australia’s new prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who told a radio station “Today is not a day for politics.”
But if Bandt’s timing was off, his political judgment was probably spot-on.
King Charles III Is the Name. So Get Used to It.
In her 70 years on the throne, as head of state in Australia just as in Britain, Elizabeth earned widespread respect, and even affection, among her “subjects” Down Under. Her portrait hangs in thousands of government offices, small-town police stations, and RSL social clubs around the country.
But that respect, inherited as a young princess and nurtured in 16 separate visits over the decades, might simply die with her. There’s little support for the monarchy as an institution, or for Charles III personally in Australia or the 14 other former colonies—including Canada, New Zealand, and Jamaica—where he now succeeds his mother as head of state.
In regular visits to Australia over his lifetime, Charles, now 73, will have heard the royal anthem—“God Save the Queen”—dozens of times. But he may never get to hear a rousing Aussie rendition of the country’s new royal anthem—“God Save the King.”
Officially, the machinery of succession is already in motion. Charles’ image will start appearing on Australia’s coinage from next year. Queen’s Counsels, as the top Australian lawyers are titled, have already become King’s Counsels. In due course, if nothing changes, Australian passports will be issued in his name, rather than hers.
But it will take an act of parliament to formally adopt Charles as head of state Down Under, and republicans might decide it is easier not to bother.
Despite slapping down Bandt for his crude politicking, Albanese is himself a committed republican who has appointed a minister with the express role of steering Australia toward a republic. The plan, had the queen lived, was to aim to push for a formal referendum in Albanese’s second term in office.
Australians were last given the chance to ditch the monarchy in a constitutional referendum held in 1999. Fifty-five percent voted to keep the queen as head of state and republicans came to agree that the cause would never be won during Elizabeth’s lifetime.
It was on her 21st birthday, on April 21, 1947, that Princess Elizabeth promised in a radio broadcast from Cape Town that her whole life, “whether it be long or short” would be devoted to the “great imperial family to which we all belong.”
Prince William Imagines Royal-Free Commonwealth, After Controversial Tour
And although the language changed, as Britain lost its empire, her personal promise was fulfilled. The Commonwealth, the grouping of former British colonies, was always close to the queen’s heart; indeed, she was the glue that has held it together.
Until Barbados declared itself a republic last year, the last Commonwealth country to do so was Mauritius in 1992. Jamaica is expected to follow suit by 2025 and a number of other Caribbean countries might copy their example.
Officially, the royal family’s position has been that it is up to individual Commonwealth members to decide whether to become republics: as long as they remain committed members of the Commonwealth itself.
One of Australia’s most fervent republicans is former Prime Minister Paul Keating, who was dubbed the “Lizard of Oz” by the British tabloids after breaching protocol by touching the queen’s back during a royal visit.
Barbados Declares Rihanna ‘National Hero’ in One of Its First Acts as a Republic
In a tribute Friday, Keating was unstinting in his praise for the queen and her selfless service—but clear that, in historical terms, she was a one-off.
“She was an exemplar of public leadership, married for a lifetime to political restraint, remaining always, the constitutional monarch,” he wrote in a statement.
“In a 70-year reign, she was required to meet literally hundreds of thousands of officials—presidents, prime ministers, ministers, premiers, mayors and municipal personalities. It was more than one person should ever have been asked to do.
“Her exceptionally long, dedicated reign is unlikely to be repeated; not only in Britain, but in the world generally.”
Amy Gunia
Fri, September 9, 2022
JAMAICA-UK-PROTEST-ROYALS
People calling for slavery reparations, protest outside the entrance of the British High Commission during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Kingston, Jamaica on March 22, 2022.
Queen Elizabeth II’s passing has sparked an outpouring of mourning across the world, but in many places, the end of her reign is also raising questions about what the future holds.
Over a dozen countries recognized the late monarch as their head of state, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Belize, Jamaica, Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Her death is likely to ignite debate about whether her successor, King Charles III, should fulfill that role. Already, there have been calls for change.
Adam Bandt, the leader of Australia’s Greens Party, posted condolences to the Queen’s family on Twitter. But he added “Now Australia must move forward,” saying “We need [a] Treaty with First Nations people, and we need to become a Republic.”
Katie Pickles, a professor of history at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, says “As the importance of the monarchy became less important in society, places like New Zealand hung on because they held the Queen personally in such high respect.” She tells TIME: “King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla will likely not have the same appeal.” Cindy McCreery, a senior lecturer in history at the University of Sydney who specializes in monarchy and colonialism, agrees that republican sentiment will be given impetus. “I do think that now that the Queen has passed on, that does give republicans in Australia and elsewhere more room to speak openly about the constitutional future and to kind of prepare the path for a republic,” McCreery says.
People calling for slavery reparations protest outside the entrance of the British High Commission during the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in Kingston, Jamaica on March 22, 2022.RICARDO MAKYN/AFP via Getty Images
Anti-monarchist sentiment in the Caribbean
In some countries anti-monarchist sentiment has grown in tandem with racial justice movements, bringing anti-colonialist thinking and conversations on Indigenous rights into the mainstream. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge faced a raft of protests on a trip through the Caribbean in March, with some groups demanding an apology and reparations for slavery. William and Kate cancelled a visit to a cacao farm, the first stop on their tour of Belize, because of protests. Ahead of their visit to Jamaica, an open letter released by the Advocates Network, and signed by more than 100 local leaders, said: “During her 70 years on the throne, your grandmother has done nothing to redress and atone for the suffering of our ancestors that took place during her reign and/or during the entire period of British trafficking of Africans, enslavement, indentureship and colonization.” Read More: How the World Is Responding to News of Queen Elizabeth II’s Death According to McCreery, “Particularly countries in the Caribbean, which of course have that very painful legacy of British slavery in the past, I think they are more likely to be among the states that choose to become republics.” In June, Jamaica’s Minister of Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Marlene Malahoo Forte, said that the process of transitioning to a republic had “formally commenced.” Barbados, once called “Little England” for its tight British ties, became a republic in late 2021.
A group of republicans protests outside the Town Hall before the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on April 12, 2014 in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Republicanism in Australasia
The Australian Republic Movement, which wants an Australian to replace the British King or Queen as the head of state, declined to provide a comment for this article. But in a statement issued after the Queen’s death, it hinted at a political opportunity. “It is unlikely we will ever see a Monarch as respected or admired by the Australian people again,” said Peter FitzSimons, chair of the movement.
In June 2022, Australia appointed Matt Thistlethwaite, a former republican campaigner, as its first ever assistant minister for the republic, to help oversee the country’s potential transition. “We’ve got this unique opportunity with a Queen coming to the end of her reign, for us to now lay the groundwork so that when that does happen in the future, we’re ready to go with a campaign and a chance to really create a truly independent nation,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published on Sept. 3. Read More: See Colorized Photos of a Young Queen Elizabeth II In 2016, then leader of New Zealand’s Labour Party, Andrew Little, said that “the end of the reign of the current monarch would be a good time to debate our constitutional arrangements. Do we still want to have our head of state living in London? Or do we want to do something else? Stand on our own two feet?”
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in 2021 that she thinks the country will become a republic in her lifetime.
Rawiri Waititi, a member of New Zealand’s parliament and the co-leader of the Māori Party, said on Twitter on Friday that “the huge vacuum left” by the Queen’s death “will cause debate.”
One New Zealand republican, who asked not to be named, told TIME that “There’s that very strong feeling of nostalgia with the Queen that doesn’t transfer to her son or grandchildren.” “I think this is very much a moment when the discussion about possible moves to become republics will open up,” McCreery concludes. “I think that there was a great sense of restraint during the Queen’s reign.”
