The most vocal republican in Australia, Peter FitzSimons, has implied that those who have criticized his campaign organization for not being sufficiently “diverse” are hypocrites.
FitzSimons said in a recent essay for the Sydney Morning Herald that the same individuals who incessantly criticize Meghan Markle, the “sole” person of color in the royal family, for belonging to his group, the Australian Republican Movement, since it is composed of white males.
“The assertion that the ARM lacks sufficient diversity? FitzSimons stated, “I will accept it from folks who have a history of advocating diversity on all fronts, and we are addressing it.
“But I’ll be damned if I’ll accept it from reviewers with a track record of adoring and cooing to all of the English royal family save its one really varied member,” the author said.
Karl Stefanovic, anchor of the Today Show, recently said that the lack of diversity in the candidates leading the republican movement will prevent it from taking off.
Let me tell you, Stefanovic continued, “It is not going to happen while you have pasty white males fronting up in Australia like Peter FitzSimons and Malcolm Turnbull.”
I did tell Peter if he was at the forefront of the campaign, I would always vote for a monarchy, co-host Langdon affirmed.
The ARM released a statement of sympathy less than an hour after the Queen passed away, thanking her for her “significant contribution” to Australia. – but fueled the republican discussion instead.
The Queen has “always made clear that the future of the Monarchy in Australia is an issue for the Australian people and them alone to decide,” according to the statement. “The Queen supported the right of Australians to become a fully independent nation during the referendum on an Australian republic in 1999.”
FitzSimons hailed the “winter warriors” on Monday for keeping the campaign running through the “lean years” after the 1999 referendum, which Australians rejected by roughly 55% due to the proposed model.
But he said that Queen Elizabeth II’s “rock-solid stability” underpinned the popularity of the monarchy and that the end of her 70-year reign “changes everything.”
No one is unaware of the reality that Australia has now clearly entered a new period, with a new king who does not command the same fervent allegiance as his predecessor.
Does it not seem absurd that our Head of State, an unelected English aristocracy who was placed by the final vestige of colonialism, would be supporting the other team in the next Ashes campaign?
FitzSimons said that during the preceding two weeks, traffic to the ARM website had increased “a hundred-fold” and that the number of new members had skyrocketed.
Along with the UK, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu now have King Charles III as their head of state.
Six of the 15 countries have said they would move toward becoming republics.
The republican prime minister Anthony Albanese has said that Australia won’t have a referendum for at least four years.