The Royal ReportKing Charles and Queen Camilla officially land in Australia for their royal tour down under. Russell Myers joins the show to discuss the Royals' busy upcoming schedule. Plus, will King Charles be the last English monarch to visit Australia?
Whose wife report.
Good evening, Welcome to the Royal Report. I'm Caroline Deruso. Coming up on the show tonight.
The King and Queen officially landed in Australia for their long anticipated royal tour. Expert panel will give you the latest and what's next on the cards for the visiting Royals. Russell Byers will join us shortly to detail their busy schedule and will King Charles be the last king to visit Australia. Esther Crag who joins us from London to discuss Obviously, the biggest news this week is that the King and Queen are here in Australia for their royal tour. They landed on Friday evening and took a day of rest yesterday. The thousands of Sydney Siders gathered at Saint Thomas's Anglican Church this morning to catch a glimpse of the King and Queen as they arrived for a morning service.
King Charles also.
Marked the Bison tenary of the New South Wales Legislative Council with a.
Speech I delighted and proud to be able to return to the Parliament of New South Wales in order to celebrate the occasion of your byzantinery. It is fascinating I think to reflect back to two hundred years ago, and thinking about those times makes me wonder what that inaugural handful of members of the New South Wales Legislative Council would make of this Parliament today and of how this great state has progressed.
He even presented a small gift to the Parliament.
In the spirit of marking the passage of time. It is my great pleasure to present a small gift to the Parliament. It is in fact an hourglass, a speech timer to sit in the chamber and bear wi is to the Legislative Council's next chapter.
Thank you.
What a great way to start. And there's much more.
I'm going straight to Russell Meers, the editor for the Daily Mirror, who's here on the ground following the Royals. Russell, you're in Australia for the royal tour and this week you wrote a very strident piece about the Australian premiers declining an audience with the King while he's in Australia.
It's a pretty poor look, isn't it.
Yeah, gd Evin Cary, Well, you know, I think it is I think that elected officials should have been there to do their duty. Of course they may have different views about Australia's direction and future as a potential republic, but I think you know, these officials are elected by the people, and many people I've spoken to on the ground are very welcoming of the King and Queen to Australia and it's certainly I think a mishap from their position, but are quite shocking. I thought that all six state premiers deciding not to attend this reception in Canberra.
And tell us about the royal tour so far bit going on today, But how does it feel for you coming over from London to Australia for the tour.
Well, we've been wocome with open arms. I think you saw the scenes today of the King and Queen getting off to the first day in Earnest of the royal tour. Of course they did arrive on Friday evening, but this was a real opportunity to see the public for the first time and there were some decent crowds. Speaking to a few locals, they were a bit annoyed that there hadn't been more publicity about the King and Queen coming to town because they wanted to get a glimpse of them. But you know, childs that well. I think Camilla has shaken off the jet lag and they, as I said, they were welcome with open arms. There's a lot of people down at Parliament, a house of course, at Saint Thomas's Church in Sydney as well, and a good opportunity and it did real really feel that the tour has definitely started.
Well, let's have a look at some of the reactions on the ground in Sydney today. So people who are very happy to meet the King and Queen.
It's a special moment.
We just heard on the Great Vine, ran down on the bus and we did not expect to be shaking hands with the King.
We're both like shaking now.
The time that they gave that the King Queen gave to the crowd, the fact that they stopped when they've.
Chattled, it was wonderful. Yeah, it was great. They're really obviously nice people.
And he shook my hand and we had eye contact and I'm shaking.
I can't believe I'm adrenaline. It's still pumping through me. It's amazing because.
I'm really cutting for a since I'm really nice to him.
And Russell, you've just landed in Canberra. What's next for the King and Queen.
But it's certainly the first full day. I suppose there's a really packed program on Monday because the King and Queen are going to be it's a bit of box sticking for a raw tour. They're going to be seeing the Governor General. But it really is all about community that getting out to see the people as much possible, and I think that being welcomed to the Capitol and gives an opportunity for not only the politicians to sort of have their photo opportunity with the King and Queen. But like I said in Sydney, very much taking on that community spirit and getting out on about the meeting as many people as possible.
And the King he looks like he's enjoying himself. Russell, he does.
I think he looked pretty well today. I was at Parliament House in Sydney when he was even making a speech and he was talking about his long love affair with Australia, the fact that he's delighted to be here to renew that that love that he has and affection for he has for the country. And I think Charles that obviously a very tumultuous year. It's been very testing time, not only for him but for the rest of the family of course his cancer treatment and the Princess of Wales as well. So I think he looks like he's enjoying himself. So fingers crossed for the rest of the.
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Russell Myers.
Thanks Karen.
Joining me now is News Cotch columnist Angela Mollard and entertainment reporter for news dot com dot Au Brontie coy Angelo. Your thoughts so far on the tour and how are Childs and Camilla doing things differently?
All lot, They're doing things very differently. In fact, I would be calling this mini tour and I think this will be the start of mani tours for the Royals. Obviously, this is happening because the King is sick, he's dealing with cancer. He's taken a pause in his treatment to come to Australia to make that huge, long, twenty.
Four or twenty five hour journey.
He's only here for a few days before he of course goes to Samow and it's a very truncated agenda. Usually, of course they would come for multiple weeks. This was supposed to be Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Fiji. Of course this time it is only Australia and Somemo. But it's not just the shortening of the trip, it's actually how the trip's unfolding that's quite different in the past. In the past, the Royals would have six or seven engagements during the day. You'd see them go from one thing in the morning right through to all the evening. On this tour, particularly in Australia, there are no evening engagements and no meals in the evening. In fact, interestingly at Parliament House today there was a meal for the parliamentarians, but there wasn't the King and Queen didn't stay for that, So a very shortened agender with things that really matter to them, which will of course be the environment, firefighters, charities, domestic violence and then of course meeting with cancer specialists.
And Brontie.
How does tour in your home country look? Are you being over there in the UK?
Honestly, I've got a major FOMO at the moment. Karen Royal too, always puts a spotlight on the country that the Royals are in and put the country always puts its best foot forward, and I think we're going to see that for Australia.
We saw it on their arrival.
It was I definitely got my first pangs of homesickness seeing the Opera House all lit up with those.
With those beautiful pictures of past royal visits.
But as Angela said, truly there's just a lot of excitement to have them there and back here.
Even people are really excitedly watching what unfolds in Australia.
Because this is the first significant overseas tour that they've done since becoming King and Queen, and.
Of course Charles has had such a difficult year with.
His cancer battle and with his daughter in law's cancer battle, and so it is just nice to see them out.
They look like they're raring to go.
It is a different two of them what we've seen in the past, but I think that there's a lot of enthusiasm and excitement there.
Yeah, there absolutely is.
An Angela speaking of enthusiasm, one of my favorite parts of any Royal tour is the profile pieces that they do on Royal super fans and this troop's no different.
No it's not. And they're just coming out to fan after fan after day. My favorite one today is a woman who was offered a job as.
A chamber made.
Her name is Suzanne Bullock and she was out there today in Sydney. She had been offered a job as a chamber maid at the palace back in nineteen seventy two. She's Australian and she was told if she didn't take the job and stay for three months, then she would be It wouldn't be great for other Australians in New Zealanders having jobs at the palace in the future. What I love about her is she's waited all these years. All she wanted to do today was to meet the King. Then there's other ones that turn up holding tea towels with pictures of Camilla on them, and of course these are great things to do, or in those full Union jack jackets and you end up seeing a picture of the house where they're full of paraphernalia. They've got every tea cup ever produced since nineteen forty six or something. I love them. I think they're joyous, the fabulous. I think it must be exciting for the King and Queen when they're walking along and they wonder who they're going to talk to I mean though they're no longer called walkabouts as we know, because you know that now just called engagements with the public. But I think it must be really great to be royal and to actually have something to say to them. And I thought what was lovely was Kelly Sloan, one of the MPs, said today to the King at She said to him, Oh, look all the surf clubs BONDI pass on their regards. It gives them something to talk about. He was then asking about Bondou. There was a co conversation about Bonde and Manly. I love the fact that people actually bring some energy to those interactions.
And there is plenty of energy in Brontie.
On Wednesday night, I hosted an event with the Monarcer's League here in Wa.
Most of the attendees were under.
Thirty, which obviously I was stoked with. Now this theme seems to be a bid have picked up in an article by the ABC. What you think is attracting a younger generation to the royals.
Of course, this is a really really important conversation because so much is made of the fact that, you know, the younger generations will decide on the survival of the monarchy the future, so their interest and engagement is crucial really, so it's really interesting to see that happen. I was thinking about this a lot. You know, the royal family has so much cut through in pop culture, but we've definitely seen that, I think in an increased way in the last few years. You know, there's been not just with things like the Crown, there's been films, has been ADOCU series, but also the younger royals and the way that they're engaging with people. I think all of this is coming together to really grab younger generations and I guess keep the royal family relevant in front of mine for a lot of people. But also the fact that a lot of them had never seen or wouldn't remember major royal events. And in the last couple of years we've seen, you know, with the Late Queen's death and all of the events surrounding that and the funeral and then of course the coronation. We're seeing these large historical spectacles and for a lot of people that's the first time they've seen that unfold and it really adds to that intrigue and fascination.
Absolutely, and Angela, you know, it's a huge effort for Charles and Camilla to come here.
Particularly Charles has not been well this year.
What do we know about the arrangements that he's put in place to manage his health while is here.
Well, of course he's pause treatment. He resumed immediately as he gets back, but he's traveling with two doctors. He also travels with his own blood, so he has blood supplies with them, and a doctor, a Royal Navy doctor is never very far from him when he's out on an engagement. That doctors is always always a portable defibrillator carried an emergency medicine, and those doctors have also done the groundwork here to know where the nearest hospital is at any point during an engagement. They also have specialists that they have in they can get twenty four hour contact with on the ground here, as well as Charles's medical professionals.
Back in the UK.
So it is a major operation, particularly when I mean it's a major operation. When the Queen used to come, she would have one doctor. This time it's too, but it's more important than ever, of course, when you don't know when something can go wrong, when someone is already dealing with her medical condition, and.
I think that's fair enough.
And Brontie, you know, there's been obviously a lot of great media around this trip, but of course there's always some pretty jaundice takes on the royal visit to Australia. It's been suggested that this visit is good for the Republican movement, but I'm not so sure.
What are your thoughts?
Well, of course, the late Queen's path thing people knew for years as she got older that you know, when she was gone, she was so beloved, things were really going to get.
Thrown up in the air.
And the question would be, you know, with the monarchy going to survive into King Charles's reign and so if they're never going to be a time that spotlight would be honest, it would be during his first visit to Australia as monarch.
What has been so interesting is I truly just don't.
See the groundswell there that anyone had expected. In fact, there was a poll out in newsport papers recently that made international news that showed that forty five percent of Australians wanted to keep the monarchy, thirty three percent wanted a republic and the rest were undecided. That's just not that strong push that I think a lot of people may have expected early into King Charles's reign.
So I think there's a few things at play here.
He's really leaned into causes that he cares about that are viewed as progressive, so he's grabbed it. You know, a younger generation there is the older generations are more attached to the royal family traditionally than younger people, so there was already.
A bit of affection there for him.
But also I think it's just the way he's carrying himself in the life last two years. As we've mentioned at the top of the show, especially in the last few months, it's such a relatable thing to be dealing with cancer or to be caring for people that are dealing with cancer and working through that.
And I think that the way.
That he's handled himself and that he's shown that he's raring to go, and he's been supporting his own family, you know, as we know that Princess Catherine also has been dealing with cancer. I think all of that has combined to create a lot more admiration and respect for King Charles, I think early in the rain than what people had possibly anticipated.
And this is obviously just you know, one particular take here in Australia. I mean, obviously, like I said earlier, most of the media has been very good. Can you tell us about how this role visit has been reported internationally?
Well, there are two factors.
So of course, people are watching to see how Australia feels about the republic movement that's been making a lot of news back here in the UK. That's sort of been dominating the coverage in the lead up to the tour. People want to know how Australians will react.
They want to see if there'll be protests.
There are a few protests here when the royals are out and about, and.
People want to know whether that will be as organized in Australia.
And also, as we've mentioned, there's the second part of that is simply seeing how King Charles carries himself.
This is his first major overseas.
Tour he's traveled so far, and he he's you know, he has been dealing with cancers, so people want to see whether he's well, how he handles it all, and just get a check in on him. So there's two major things that people have their eyes on and they'll be watching to see how that unfolds in the coming days.
I think that's very fair. Angela Mola Bronte Court. As always, ladies, thank you so much for joining us.
And coming up.
Will King Charles be the last king to visit Australia? Estcracker joins us from London to discuss.
Welcome back. Joining me now is writer and cast to Esther Kraker.
Esther, we are loving having the King and Queen here in Australia, but an interesting place in the UK telegraph saying that King Charles may be the first and last king to visit Australia.
We'd love to know about this pace and what's your view?
Well, this piece is based on clearly the republican movement in Australia, seeing this as hopefully the last visit from a British monarch, I personally suspect it will not be the last. Actually, Prince William's popularity is even higher than that of his father, and I suspect the throne is in good hands being handed over to him. But it's just part of this sort of wave of republicanism. Whenever the monarchy goes to visit many other parts of the empire. Look the reality is one thing we've noticed is actually politicians in Australia. Australian politicians tend to be quite a distance from.
The rest of the country.
So we've pulled according to a Republican polling, only about thirty percent of the country is really in favor of abolishing the monarchy, which is actually lower than anticipated. It's usually hovers around sort of thirty five to forty percent, So the Republican movement is actually losing steam, and so they've been using this visit by the King to try and say, actually, Australians are on the side of abolishing the monarchy, and it's not really kind of getting the kind of traction that they are hoping for. We've seen the Not My King movement follow the King from all the way from the UK actually to Australia, and some also local branches of that movement have followed him as well, but it's not really kind ofating the same kind of momntum that was hoped. The King has always been clear that the decision of countries to no longer have the monarchy as their head of stat is for the countries to make that decision for theirselves and for themselves, you know, Prince William has said the same thing as well. And it's this kind of openness and willingness to just allow countries to make these decisions for themselves that really kind of sets a different tone with the royal family. It's not seen as an imposition rather than kind of a historical inheritance. And these are the kinds of things that people are actually taking to yourself. And so now what we're seeing is a split between the politicians who are quite obviously republican and make no qualms about it and have actually in many ways snubbed the king when he first arrived and the rest of the country that are saying, actually, we kind of like to keep this Now. Obviously we have to wait and see what will happen in the next ten to fifteen years as demographic significant demographic changes in countries like Australia potentially change the public's attitude towards maintaining the royal family and the monarchy. But so far it seems like more of the public's onsite than not.
And it won't come as any surprise to you estut that Australians are more interested in domestic economic issues than they are in something nebulous like Republicanism. But in the lead up to this tour, Charles had been urged to return indigenous artifacts held in British museums.
It's not the first time we've heard this sort of issue. What's the precise issue here.
Certainly not so.
It's been estimated that I think then over thirty nine thousand artifacts across seventy museums in the UK that have artifacts from Aboriginal communities from Australia, and there's always been cause for reparations for bridges sending them back to where they come from. Now, the argument around sort of sending back artifacts from museums to where they come from is an interesting one because it's not really it doesn't really understand the context which they get there and actually how the public can benefit from having them in these museums instead of having to travel to the places where they originate from to be able to enjoy that and understand the history behind them and all of that. But it's interesting King Charles has been called upon to be an ally and an advocate for expediting the repatriation of these artifacts, even though they are simultaneously at the same time trying to get rid of him as the head of State of Australia. It's interesting how you'd want him to be an ally but only for a cause that benefits them. But you know, the whole argument around some artifacts being returned is quite an interesting one. You see that for many countries as well in Sub Saharan Africa that want or governments from those countries that want some some historical artifacts return but they actually don't hold as much significance when they return there because the only people that get access to them are the people that either travel to those countries.
Are from there.
You know, you educate people better about the history of not only the where these things come from, but the relations between the two countries that have that have that uh those artifacts by having them in countries where they have now ended up. And it's it's quite an interesting debate. It's it seems more of kind of like a gotcha moment more than actually just wanting to educate people about history and having a neutral Batchel view of what actually happened. But it's quite interesting that King Charles is being called to spearhead this. He's he's seen as useful in one way but not in the other way, and it's quite ironic actually.
And while the King and Coina here in Australia, Prince William was out this week he did an interview regarding an upcoming documentary on homelessness.
We've talked about it before. He's a clue there.
Will be some people who might question whether you're the right person to lead this project and its efforts to end homelessness.
How would you respond to that? I think everyone having a right to a safe and stable home benefits us all. I come with no other agenda than desperately trying to help people who are in need, and I see that as part of my role. Is that why else would I be here if I'm not using this role properly to influence and help people where I can.
Now, when are we expecting these to beay relased and what should we expect from the content.
So this documentary that he's done is part of his program called Homewards, which is a five year, very ambitious initiative to try and end homelessness in the UK, and the Prince has been very clear that that this is something that he's very passionate about. The funding many projects across the new parts of the British coastline to try and fund housing.
Projects to end homelessness.
Obviously, this is a really complex issue to tackle because in tackling homelessness you also have to tackle mental health issues, addiction and all the old sort of the lack of social housing in Britain. But it's quite a stark contrast to how the politics of homelessness is discussed in the UK. I mean, there's one of the bigger controversies is the fact that you have people coming across illegally to Britain across the Channel on small boats that are being put up in hotels to the tune of millions of pounds a day, while you have a growing homeless population in Britain. And I think by Prince William kind of looking at this from sort of non toxic perspective and just saying, look, it's a public benefit to have people in safe housing and it has positive repercussions on crime levels for example, addiction. All of that. You really see kind of the real value of the Royal family in shedding a line on issues but not making it a very toxic political debate.
And that's the show for tonight. Thank you for joining us.
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