Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has officially followed up on his open invitation to King Charles, quashing speculation that the monarch would not be welcomed by the new Prime Minister.
Mr Albanese met with the King on May 3rd as part of the official coronation celebrations, with 9News reporting that the Prime Minister had officially rectified his royal faux pas, extending King Charles and Queen Camilla a formal invitation to visit Australia “at a convenient time.”
“It was a pleasure to meet King Charles III again at Buckingham Palace, and an honour to represent Australia at his coronation,” tweeted Albanese.
The leaders reunited ahead of King Charles’ May 6 coronation.
(Image: Getty)Mr Albanese’s prior meeting with the King in September of last year coincided with Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and Charles’ official proclamation as King, at which time he extended an open invitation to the new monarch to visit Australia.
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With Charles undertaking his official duties as King for almost eight months, royal experts believed that the Prime Minister had snubbed the monarch by not following up on his open invitation to the new King in an official capacity.
“This is not how to deal with the King. You need to invite his majesty to visit Australia,” royal biographer Robert Jobson told NewsCorp.
Jobson added that it is traditionally royal protocol for the monarch to be formally invited to visit Australia within 12 months of being crowned.
King Charles last visited Australia for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018.
(Image: Getty)Speaking to the Daily Mail, a source close to the royal family added that “Charles is keen to connect with the people he is serving in Australia as King once again, but the Australian Prime Minister is in no rush to send a formal invite.”
Despite the Prime Minister finally extending a formal invitation, the lack of a set timeline surrounding the royal visit led some royal watchers to speculate that the previous alleged lack of enthusiasm surrounding King Charles’ Australian tour was due to Mr Albanese’s desire to shift Australia away from the monarchy and towards a republic.
Mr Albanese has not been one to hide his overall desire to detach Australia’s leadership from the Crown, stating at the 1999 Republic Referendum Committee ‘I urge people to support the republic and to support it now because it is inevitable – everyone accepts that. We should do it now, so we can do it with pride.’
Although the Prime Minister argued that it was inappropriate to discuss the shift to a republic in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s passing, speculations surrounding Mr Albanese’s republican agenda began to arise once more following the appointment of Sydney MP Matt Thistlewaite as Assistant Minister for the Republic.
‘We have a minister for the crown, devoted to removing the crown. I don’t think that’s what Australians were sold at the election’, Australian Monarchist League’s Rachel Bailes told Nine.
Prime Minister Albanese has long expressed his desire for Australia to become a republic.
(Image: Getty)Despite the allegations, the Prime Minister was quick to quash any suggestion that the new King was not welcome in Australia.
‘As the Australian head of state, he is always a welcome visitor and he always has been to Australia’, Mr Albanese previously told reporters.
Now that the Prime Minister has formally invited the new King and Queen Down Under, royal fans eagerly await the arrival of Charles III to our shores.
Only time will tell when King Charles III will visit Australia, and whether Mr Albanese’s push for republic will have any bearing on Australia’s future relationship with the monarchy.
