Although His Majesty has long been a vocal advocate for the environment and fighting climate change, he made it clear that he didn’t want to be regarded as an activist monarch.
Different Australian lawmakers have expressed different opinions on Charles III’s right to continue discussing the environmental calamity and climate change that most strongly characterizes his advocacy.
Charles, seen here speaking a UN conference in Glasgow in 2021, has long been a keen supporter of environmental causes
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the new king didn’t need to shut up about climate change because it was an issue above party politics.
‘I think dealing with the challenge of climate change shouldn’t be seen as a political issue,’ he told the ABC.
‘It should be seen as an issue that is about humanity and about our very quality of life and survival as a world.
‘This is a big threat and King Charles has identified that for a long period of time.
‘I think engagement in issues is very different from engagement in party political matters. That would be entirely inappropriate.’
King Charles, here with with Queen Camilla as he is proclaimed Britain’s king, said he will not be pursuing activism while on the throne
However, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said King Charles’ indication he was stepping away from activism was appropriate.
‘I think the point he made in his speech yesterday was that he now, as the Queen did, doesn’t express those views on a day-to-day basis,’ he said.
In his first speech as King, Charles vowed to uphold the constitutional obligation of British monarchs to stay above the political fray, as The Queen did.
‘It will no longer be possible to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I cared so deeply, but I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others,’ he said.
In a 2018 documentary to mark his 70th birthday, the then-Prince Charles said he would change his behaviour when he became king.
‘The idea, somehow, that I’m going to go on in exactly the same way, if I have to succeed, is complete nonsense because the two – the two situations – are completely different,’ he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, here seen standing between Governor-General David Hurley on his right and wife Linda on his right, said climate change transcended party politics
When asked if his campaigning would continue he said: ‘No, it won’t. I’m not that stupid.’
During her long reign, King Charles’s mother kept out of politics, although a palace aid was forced to quit in 1987 after telling the New York Times The Queen opposed Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to impose sanctions on Apartheid-era South Africa.
However, The Queen’s neutrality so impressed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he said despite being regularly summoned to have an audience with The Queen for 10 years he had no idea what her political views were.
By contrast, Charles III has long worn his heart on his sleeve delivering apocalyptic warnings about climate change and pleading for forests or endangered species to be saved.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, seen here addressing a Minerals Council event in September, said it was right for King Charles not to speak out on politics
‘Climate change should be seen as the greatest challenge to face man and treated as a much bigger priority in the United Kingdom,’ he told the BBC in 2005.
In 2008 he told the European Parliament ‘the doomsday clock of climate change is ticking ever faster towards midnight.’
‘The lives of billions of people depend on your response and none of us will be forgiven by our children and grandchildren if we falter and fail,’ he said.
‘Determined and principled leadership has never been more needed. Surely, this is just the moment in history for which the European Union was created.’