Speaker 1: Already and this this is the Daily OS.
Speaker 2: This is the Daly OS.
Speaker 1: Oh now it makes sense.
Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Monday,
Speaker 2: the twenty first of October.
Speaker 1: I'm Sam, I'm emma.
Speaker 2: On Friday, King Charles and Queen Camilla touchdown in Sydney
Speaker 2: for a five day visit. It's their first of visual
Speaker 2: visit to Australia since Charles became King in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 2: and his first overseas trip since being diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker 2: As they continue their formal engagements with government and community
Speaker 2: representatives over the coming days, the question of Australia's place
Speaker 2: in the monarchy has resurfaced amongst commentators and spectators.
Speaker 3: It's a conversation really being led by the Australian republic
Speaker 3: movement to say more and more Australians believe we should
Speaker 3: leave the Commonwealth. In today's deep Dive, we're going to
Speaker 3: discuss why the King and Queen are here and where
Speaker 3: Australia is at when it comes to the monarchy verse
Speaker 3: Republican debate. But first Sam, what's making headlines?
Speaker 2: The US presidential campaign is intensifying as it enters its
Speaker 2: final fortnight. Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris spent the
Speaker 2: weekend in the swing states of Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania,
Speaker 2: where they're both expected to remain for the rest of
Speaker 2: the fortnite. Early voting has now commenced in twenty six
Speaker 2: of the fifty US states, with more than three hundred
Speaker 2: thousand ballots cast on the first day of early voting
Speaker 2: in Georgia alone. Most national polls suggest Harris holds a
Speaker 2: slim lead over the former president.
Speaker 3: A former jet style pilot has been sentenced to thirty
Speaker 3: two years in jail for murdering retiree Carol Clay at
Speaker 3: a remote campground in northeast Victoria. Greg Lynn was in
Speaker 3: Victoria's high Country when he confronted Clay and her partner
Speaker 3: and shot Clay dead in Her partner also died during
Speaker 3: the confrontation, before Lynn burned and buried their bodies. A
Speaker 3: jury in Victoria's Supreme Court found Lynn guilty of murdering
Speaker 3: Clay earlier this year, but acquitted him of killing her
Speaker 3: male partner. During sentencing, just as Michael Croucher described Clay's
Speaker 3: death as violent, brutal, and horrific.
Speaker 2: Large parts of Cuba and the Bahamas have been evacuated
Speaker 2: in preparation for Hurricane Oscar to make landfall, marking the
Speaker 2: fifteenth major hurricane of the season, which goes from June
Speaker 2: to November. Cubans have been without power for many days
Speaker 2: after its largest power plant failed, with power only available
Speaker 2: to those with private backup generators. Cuba's Prime Minister has
Speaker 2: suspended all non essential public services to conserve the available
Speaker 2: electricity in anticipation of the hurricane.
Speaker 3: And in today's good news, a pilot who rescued more
Speaker 3: than one hundred and forty animals from shelters in the
Speaker 3: US before Hurricanes Helene and Milton has now adopted one
Speaker 3: of the cats he rescued. Pilot Matt Prebish volunteered to
Speaker 3: fly dozens of dogs and cats to safety from shelters
Speaker 3: in Florida and Tennessee, all of whom are now up
Speaker 3: for adoption. Pebish said one of the cats he rescued
Speaker 3: caught his attention once he safely landed, a kitten named Avery.
Speaker 3: The pilot has now adopted Avery and taken him to
Speaker 3: his home in Texas, where the four month old will
Speaker 3: join another cat and two dogs, Okay Sam King Charles
Speaker 3: the third and his wife Queen Camilla are here in Australia.
Speaker 3: They touched down on Friday ahead of their first royal
Speaker 3: visit here since Charles became king.
Speaker 1: Now he's no stranger to Ozzie Shaw's he visited here first.
Speaker 3: In nineteen sixty six as a high school student, but
Speaker 3: this is a bit of a different visit for him
Speaker 3: now that he is king. What's on the agenda this time.
Speaker 2: Around, Well, they're really going to try and do as
Speaker 2: much as possible. It's short time that they're spending across
Speaker 2: Sydney and Canberra, but they've got plenty of people who
Speaker 2: want to see them, especially in government and community circles.
Speaker 2: They were greeted by Anthony Albernizi at Sydney Airport on
Speaker 2: Friday night, and over the weekend they attended a community
Speaker 2: barbecue hosted by New South Wales Premier Chris Mins and
Speaker 2: they had the opportunity to view the Defense Forces Navy
Speaker 2: fleets float down Sydney Harbor. Now they're going to head
Speaker 2: to Canberra and there they're going to meet with government officials,
Speaker 2: community groups and attend a couple of events. There's one
Speaker 2: at the War Memorial and one at Parliament House. Now
Speaker 2: it's not actually a parliamentary sitting week, so I'm not
Speaker 2: sure how many federal MPs and senators are going to
Speaker 2: be in town for it. Charles is also scheduled to
Speaker 2: tour the National Botanic Gardens he loves a garden and
Speaker 2: meet with scientists at the CSIRO to discuss bushfire research. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Camilla is going to be meeting with domestic violence advocates
Speaker 2: and representatives from a great organization called Givett, which is
Speaker 2: charity she's a patron of that helps distribute donations to
Speaker 2: various causes.
Speaker 3: Speaking of the camera leg of this royal visit, we
Speaker 3: did a story last week that really resonated with the
Speaker 3: TDA audience and it was about the fact that none
Speaker 3: of the state premiers had accepted an invitation to attend
Speaker 3: a welcome ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra. TDA journo
Speaker 3: Harry Sekulich actually reached out to all six state leaders
Speaker 3: and confirmed none would be in attendance.
Speaker 2: None.
Speaker 1: None.
Speaker 3: This drew criticism from pro monarchist figures who said that
Speaker 3: their absence showed a huge lack of respect, but the
Speaker 3: premiers defended their reasons, which included, you know, Mostly it
Speaker 3: was about scheduling conflicts, but some had election campaign commitments,
Speaker 3: so they all sort of gave a reason and defended
Speaker 3: why they wouldn't be there.
Speaker 1: But that was a big headline last week, and.
Speaker 2: That's why I think it'll be equally interesting to see
Speaker 2: what federal politicians are making the journey to Canberra in
Speaker 2: a non sitting week to be there for all of
Speaker 2: the official functions. On other point worth mentioning is that
Speaker 2: this is Charles's first overseas trip since his cancer diagnosis.
Speaker 2: You might remember that Buckingham Palace announced back in February
Speaker 2: that the King had been diagnosed with cancer. They didn't
Speaker 2: specify what type, but we know that he's been undergoing treatment.
Speaker 2: We also know that he's paused the treatment for this trip,
Speaker 2: and some reports suggest he's traveling with his own medical
Speaker 2: team and even his own blood supply.
Speaker 3: So I guess one of the big questions then is
Speaker 3: why now, why make the trip if he is not
Speaker 3: in good health, if he's in the middle of treatment,
Speaker 3: what's the significance.
Speaker 2: Well, I think there is some significance to the fact
Speaker 2: that it is his first visit as king, and he's
Speaker 2: a new king. He's had relatively little time in the role,
Speaker 2: and touring the different countries that are part of the
Speaker 2: Commonwealth is a really important part of the role of
Speaker 2: the head.
Speaker 1: Of the monarch.
Speaker 2: Charles has been his sixteen times before, this is his
Speaker 2: first time as king. There's also a bigger engagement in
Speaker 2: the region though, that I think is the main reason
Speaker 2: why the trip is happening, and that is this week's
Speaker 2: Commonwealth Head of Government meeting in Samoa. Now this is
Speaker 2: the first one that Charles is going to attend as
Speaker 2: Head of the Commonwealth and that's obviously significant, and that's
Speaker 2: where he gets the opportunity to meet with leaders from
Speaker 2: other Commonwealth nations all in one spot.
Speaker 3: So it sounds like they're trying to cover a lot
Speaker 3: of bases, a lot of motivating factors for this trip.
Speaker 3: One of them could be about the sentiment towards or
Speaker 3: a growing sentiment away from the royal family. How are
Speaker 3: Australians feeling about the visit.
Speaker 2: It's really mixed, like there is certainly a contingent of
Speaker 2: Australians who are really excited, and I think the clearest
Speaker 2: way to try and figure out who those people are
Speaker 2: will be at the events themselves. Yeah, who's turned up
Speaker 2: to actually catch a glimpse of Charles and Camilla. But
Speaker 2: there is a growing sense of what you could call
Speaker 2: indifference or potentially skepticism about the monarchy's role in modern Australia.
Speaker 2: I mean, reading through some of the comments from the
Speaker 2: TDA audience on that post you mentioned earlier, it definitely
Speaker 2: seems to be particularly pertinent amongst young people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and leading the charge in terms of the discussion
Speaker 3: about Australia leaving the monarchy is the Australian Republican movement.
Speaker 3: They've been pretty vocal in the lead up to this
Speaker 3: visit and over the last few days.
Speaker 1: What's going on there.
Speaker 2: Well, they've been seizing on this moment to reignite the
Speaker 2: debate about Australia becoming a republic. They've launched this cheeky
Speaker 2: campaign calling this the farewell Tour of the British Monarchy
Speaker 2: in Australia, and they've gone all the way. They've got
Speaker 2: posters and T shirts that make it look like it's
Speaker 2: the farewell tour for a rock band.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I've seen the merch, very cheeky, very clever marketing.
Speaker 3: But behind that, behind that sort of tongue in cheek sentiment.
Speaker 3: What is the actual momentum behind the Republican movement at
Speaker 3: the moment, Is it experiencing any kind of an uptick?
Speaker 2: Well, we have to look to some of the opinion
Speaker 2: polls out there for an answer to that. Some recent
Speaker 2: polling suggests that about sixty of Australians would prefer an
Speaker 2: Australian head of state over King Charles, and in one
Speaker 2: Guardian es Central poll from last year, fifty four percent
Speaker 2: said that they would support a republic referendum.
Speaker 3: Those are pretty significant numbers. But you mentioned a referendum there,
Speaker 3: so what do we need.
Speaker 1: To know about that?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's important when looking at that last
Speaker 2: Guardian poll to remember that the support for a referendum
Speaker 2: tends to fluctuate based on what's happening in the news.
Speaker 2: So you see kind of peaks and troughs based on
Speaker 2: controversies in the royal family, if there's a high profile death,
Speaker 2: if there's a transfer of power, or if there's indeed
Speaker 2: a visit, and that kind of leads into what you
Speaker 2: were saying earlier that a visit from the King, it
Speaker 2: would hope, from the King's perspective, firm up some of
Speaker 2: that support for the monarchy. The challenge for those who
Speaker 2: want to push for a referendum to test whether Australia
Speaker 2: should become a republic is turning that up and down
Speaker 2: then kind of more fluctuating sense of strength in the
Speaker 2: publican movement into concrete action, no matter what time of
Speaker 2: year that question is put to the Australian people.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and if we know those numbers are about fifty
Speaker 3: four percent or sixty ish percent come referendum day, you
Speaker 3: know that is not a confident figure for a victory.
Speaker 2: No, And referendums tend to fail, right, I mean, we've
Speaker 2: had eight successful referendums out of forty four attempts in
Speaker 2: Australian history. The last republican referendum in nineteen ninety nine
Speaker 2: did fail. There was about forty five percent of Australians
Speaker 2: who voted in favor and fifty five percent against.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really interesting to reflect on. I suppose nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety nine, you know, twenty five or not that long ago,
Speaker 3: years ago, And I think when we talk about that referendum,
Speaker 3: obviously it was unsuccessful, but we don't often zoom in
Speaker 3: on the numbers. And forty five to fifty five it's
Speaker 3: not overwhelming in any sense in the word. So what's
Speaker 3: the argument for Australia becoming a republic movement?
Speaker 1: And then on the other side, you know there.
Speaker 3: Is this group of loyal royalists monarchists behind the Australian
Speaker 3: Monarchists League.
Speaker 1: They have their own arguments. What are the key points?
Speaker 2: This kind of could make its own podcast, because there's
Speaker 2: some really interesting arguments on both sides, but in brief
Speaker 2: and so that you've got the context to understand it
Speaker 2: whilst King Charles is in town. The key argument for
Speaker 2: the republic movement is that it's time for Australia to
Speaker 2: have its own head of state. They want somebody who
Speaker 2: is Australian and who lives in Australia, who understands the
Speaker 2: country and is directly accountable to Australians. And they say
Speaker 2: it's part of this process of asserting our national identity
Speaker 2: and independence, especially as we continue to struggle with how
Speaker 2: our history of colonization and First Nations community disadvantage fits
Speaker 2: into the broader narrative of Australia.
Speaker 3: And the argument also is that the monarchy or the
Speaker 3: royal family's role in Australian life remains or has become
Speaker 3: fairly ornamental, that we have that relative independence in the
Speaker 3: structures of our government and everyday life here, and that
Speaker 3: you know, this is just kind of putting a full
Speaker 3: stop on that independence.
Speaker 2: Kind of things will change symbolically, but nothing will change logistically,
Speaker 2: is the kind of sense they want to put out
Speaker 2: there now. On the other side of things, monarchists argue
Speaker 2: that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. We've got
Speaker 2: a current system that is working. They say that the
Speaker 2: monarchy provides stability and continuity, and that it's an important
Speaker 2: link to our history and traditions. There's also the argument
Speaker 2: that changing to a republic would be complicated, and it
Speaker 2: could be potentially divisive, and it could present, in some monarchists' arguments,
Speaker 2: a distraction from more pressing issues facing the country.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm just thinking about what would change tangibly in
Speaker 3: our day to day lives if Australia became a republic,
Speaker 3: and first thing I think of is money.
Speaker 1: Currency.
Speaker 3: Right, surely we would have to implement some kind of
Speaker 3: either not necessary new currency, but we'd need to The
Speaker 3: mint would need to produce new physical currency. Be a
Speaker 3: different face on face that seems like an expensive and
Speaker 3: timely exercise.
Speaker 2: Well, the actual running of a referendum is expensive and timely,
Speaker 2: so there's that argument as well.
Speaker 1: So where does the current government stand on all this?
Speaker 2: So Anthony Aberesi's Labor government came into office with a
Speaker 2: promise to hold a referendum on becoming a republic in
Speaker 2: their second term if they were to be reelected.
Speaker 1: Is this something I completely forgot about?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a big call.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember there being discussion in the lead up
Speaker 3: to the Queen's death about when would be the right
Speaker 3: time and this promise, but it's kind of gone away
Speaker 3: a little bit.
Speaker 2: Well, I think they've backed away from that timeline after
Speaker 2: the failure of the Voice referendum last year because there
Speaker 2: seems to be a sense that the appetite for really
Speaker 2: changing the constitution is not quite there at the moment
Speaker 2: for Australians, and two failed referendums in two consecutive terms
Speaker 2: is not something any government would want on their record.
Speaker 3: Yeah, got a way up the political gains or potential
Speaker 3: losses of yeh, a second referendum. I do think it's
Speaker 3: also important to discuss here what's been happening around the
Speaker 3: world in other Commonwealth countries. So Jamaica has said its
Speaker 3: planning on removing Charles as its head of state by
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five. There's been a lot of momentum there
Speaker 3: towards becoming a republic after more than three hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty years of colonial rule. You might remember there was
Speaker 3: quite an ill fated royal tour in twenty twenty two
Speaker 3: in Jamaica and around the Caribbean by Prince William and
Speaker 3: Princess Kate. There were some viral images from that time
Speaker 3: of the Prince and Princess on one side of a
Speaker 3: wire fence and the hands of children kind of reaching
Speaker 3: out to them. It really evoked imagery of former British
Speaker 3: colonial rule and was bad pr really bad pr for
Speaker 3: the royal family at that time. Now, of the fifty
Speaker 3: six member states of the Commonwealth, more than twenty are
Speaker 3: in Africa, and that reignites that conversation about what does
Speaker 3: colonial history represent. And back to the Caribbean, we've got
Speaker 3: government officials in Belize, the Bahamas, Grenada, Antigua, a few
Speaker 3: other regions that have signaled they do want to become
Speaker 3: republics in the near future.
Speaker 1: Other parts of.
Speaker 3: That region that have done it Guyana, Trinidad, and Tobago
Speaker 3: Dominica all removed the then monarch, Queen Elizabeth as their
Speaker 3: head of state in the seventies, and Barbados followed suit
Speaker 3: in November twenty twenty one, so it became the newest
Speaker 3: sort of republic in the world, the most recent Commonwealth
Speaker 3: country to leave the monarchy behind. But obviously there are
Speaker 3: dozens of countries where that conversation is ongoing. So it
Speaker 3: marks a very interesting context for this visit from Charles
Speaker 3: and Camilla. Not only this visit, but you know their
Speaker 3: place and their relevance in the world.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that what the King and Queen are
Speaker 2: trying to do is trying to modernize the image of
Speaker 2: the monarch, and part of this is the fact that
Speaker 2: they're trying to do things that seem more relevant to
Speaker 2: contemporary Australian society. There's more of a focus on climate change,
Speaker 2: there's more of a focus on First Nations rights in
Speaker 2: their schedule for the next couple of days, and there's
Speaker 2: a lot of good wills still to them. Personally amongst Australians,
Speaker 2: there was a recent survey that found half of Australians
Speaker 2: have a positive view of the King and royal family
Speaker 2: as people, so you know they're trying to, I guess,
Speaker 2: bring that out of the woodwork and get those people
Speaker 2: to line up on the sides of a function to
Speaker 2: give some of those helpful visuals, not like the ones
Speaker 2: that you spoke about on past trips. But on the
Speaker 2: other hand, this visit has brought this debate back into
Speaker 2: the news cycle. I mean, we wouldn't be having this
Speaker 2: conversation today on the podcast if not for the fact
Speaker 2: that the King and Queen are here. And some of
Speaker 2: the key questions I think people are asking is does
Speaker 2: it still make sense for us to be in the
Speaker 2: monarchy and are we ready to take that next step
Speaker 2: as a nation.
Speaker 3: We've sort of mentioned that the death of Queen Elizabeth
Speaker 3: shifted gears a little bit. Leaders had suggested that it
Speaker 3: wasn't appropriate to discuss leaving the monarchy while Queen Elizabeth
Speaker 3: was still its head, while she was still alive, So
Speaker 3: the Republican movement it sort of felt like it was
Speaker 3: on hold. And then when the Queen did die, there
Speaker 3: were hopes from some camps that it would be the
Speaker 3: right time. Did anything change.
Speaker 2: There was a bit of polling that compared the sentiment
Speaker 2: of Australians before and after the Queen's death. There was
Speaker 2: a twelve percent increase, so twenty percent up to thirty
Speaker 2: two percent of those who felt Australia should become a
Speaker 2: republic as soon as possible. So there was a bit
Speaker 2: of a tick.
Speaker 1: After a significant jump.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there was, but it wasn't seismic. It wasn't this
Speaker 2: massive ground swell. It didn't feel like, at least in
Speaker 2: the polls, like it was the overwhelmingly logical move in
Speaker 2: the minds of most Australians. The same percentage this is
Speaker 2: really interesting, the same percentage of Australians think that Charles
Speaker 2: will be the final monarch to rule, So in other words,
Speaker 2: we're going to leave soon as those who think that
Speaker 2: that's not going to happen. So it's quite a divided country.
Speaker 1: In that way.
Speaker 3: So I mean that division kind of tells us that
Speaker 3: there's probably not going to be any major movement on
Speaker 3: this within the next few years. It's unlikely we're going
Speaker 3: to see a referendum in.
Speaker 1: The short term.
Speaker 3: But in terms of the next few days, Charles and Camilla,
Speaker 3: the remaining days of their visit, I think what everyone
Speaker 3: will be watching closely for is that public reaction. Is
Speaker 3: there going to be that groundswell of enthusiasm or is
Speaker 3: the sense of apathy going to kind of take over
Speaker 3: and give us some more clues about where public opinion
Speaker 3: is heading.
Speaker 2: It's going to be a really visual examination of how
Speaker 2: people feel about the monarchy on the streets of Sydney
Speaker 2: and Canberra.
Speaker 3: Absolutely well, we'll certainly be keeping a close eye on
Speaker 3: it all.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for breaking it down for us, Sam.
Speaker 2: Thanks em.
Speaker 3: We'll be back tomorrow with more of the news you
Speaker 3: need to know. In the meantime, have a great day.
Speaker 2: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 2: Bungelung Calcadion woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Speaker 2: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest
Speaker 2: Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the
Speaker 2: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.