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King Charles Heads to Australia and Commonwealth Meeting

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King Charles III set to visit Australia and Samoa on a trip spanning a dozen time zones

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Despite previous public engagements being canceled due to his cancer diagnosis, the UK's King Charles III and his wife Queen Camilla arrived in Sydney, Australia, Friday evening to begin a royal tour of the Commonwealth.

While this is the royal couple's first trip to the Commonwealth since 2018, it's Charles' first as the reigning king. His mother and predecessor, the late Queen Elizabeth II, made the trip during her reign, but no Monarch before her had.

The King was greeted on the airport tarmac, with a photo montage of Charles' previous visits to the Commonwealth displayed on the sails of the Sydney Opera Opera House.

Charles will visit the Australian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander war memorials; attend environmental events and a community barbecue; and visit the Opera House. His 11-day trip will also include a trip to Samoa for the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

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However, the Australian Republic Movement (ARM), which wants the Commonwealth to break from the monarchy, has dubbed it the "Farewell Oz Tour," as it hopes Australia will vote to become a Republic.

The first republic referendum was held in 1999, which lost not due to a lack of public support — which stood at about two-thirds — but because they couldn't agree on what system to replace the monarchy with. Current public support sits at 50%.

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The king's tour is a strategic move to reinvigorate the monarchy's relevance in the modern world. By focusing on critical issues like climate change, Charles is positioning himself as a global leader and demonstrating the monarchy's ability to address pressing international concerns. This approach could help shore up support for the royal family both at home and abroad.

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The royal tour is an outdated tradition that diverts attention and resources from more pressing issues. Australia and other Commonwealth nations should be focusing on their own governance and tackling climate change through practical policies, rather than relying on symbolic gestures from a foreign monarch. The tour may also reignite debates about republicanism, potentially destabilizing political landscapes in visited countries.

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King Charles III's Pacific Tour Tackles Climate Crisis

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While the King's visit will undoubtedly reignite the republic debate, there is still much to celebrate about the Commonwealth tour and its history. Charles, as his mother did before him, is setting out to meet thousands of loyal fans and engage in serious political discussions. Whether Australia becomes a Republic or not, there's still plenty of joy surrounding the historic event.

Vanity Fair

King Charles and Queen Camilla Kick Off Australian Tour, Their First As Monarchs

Australia has tens of thousands of years of non-British history, not to mention the newcomers who also call it home and want nothing to do with the monarchy. Instead of allowing Charles, his son, and grandson to rule over the country for the next hundred years, the Australian people should remove them from power and elect their own head of state.

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