PETER VAN ONSELEN: Craig Foster, you had one job as Australia’s top republican… but by lecturing us all about foreign wars, you’ve royally screwed up and we’ll probably have the monarchy for another generation

The Australian Republic Movement insisted the nation would ditch the monarchy after the Queen died and finally ‘stand on its own two feet’.

But then they screwed everything up. How did it come to this?

If opinion polls showing declining support for becoming a republic in the wake of the Queen’s death weren’t enough to drive republicans to drink, this week’s barney between (now former) ARM co-chairs Nova Peris and Craig Foster should do the trick.

These former sporting stars have been duking it out in public over the Middle East conflict between Israel and Palestine.

If there is an issue sporting types (and entertainers) are less qualified to lecture the rest of us about – beyond the merits of becoming a republic – it is how to solve the complex challenges in the Middle East. 

Yet differences of opinion on this front drove the ARM co-chairs apart, to the point where they could not work together anymore.

Both have quit in disgust with one another, with the feud continuing today via a caustic opinion piece penned by Peris in The Australian, in which she described her former colleague’s commentary as ‘divisive and inaccurate’.  

With the shrewd judgement the ARM has shown over the years it will probably ask fellow republican advocate Alan Joyce to take over as the next Chair. 

The ex-Qantas CEO clearly has the common touch the movement needs. A unifying figure to be sure. 

When I contacted the father of the ARM, former PM Malcolm Turnbull, to see if he would be keen to resume the role he previously held, he unsurprisingly didn’t seem all that interested.

Who can the cause now seriously turn to? And who would even want the job?

Both have quit in disgust with one another, with the feud continuing today via a caustic op-ed penned by Peris, in which she described Foster’s commentary as ‘divisive and inaccurate’

Confidence abounded after the death of the Queen. Then ARM Chair Peter FitzSimons generously waited one week after Queen Elizabeth II was laid to rest before writing a column declaring in his opening line: ‘We’re back.’

He went on to say her death ‘changes everything’, even taking credit for Anthony Albanese installing an assistant minister for the republic after the 2022 election win.

He also declared that the new ARM model for a republic would be ‘the starting point for the conversation that the Albanese government will be pushing from here’.

Fast forward to today, and quite apart from the animosity now gripping the recent leadership of the ARM, Albo is set to dump his assistant minister for the republic portfolio in the next reshuffle – and he’s declared there won’t be a referendum in a second Labor term, assuming he gets re-elected.

Perhaps FitzSimons can convince Albo to change his mind on the impotent ministerial position, keeping it to meaninglessly twist in the wind for another three years. The two are tennis buddies from way back. 

But he won’t change the PM’s decision to continue to ignore the republican issue.

Australia becoming a republic still feels inevitable, but I for one am starting to think it won’t happen in my lifetime. (Pictured: William and Kate during a visit to Taronga Zoo in April 2014)

The cost-of-living challenges and housing crisis consuming the country are all that Albo wants to focus on. He certainly won’t want to be seen to be indulging in issues like the republic instead.

Especially not after having been burnt by the resounding rejection of his Voice referendum last year by more than 60 per cent of the Australian voting population.

Like so many campaigns of the modern left, that was another one dominated by celebrities unable to convince the mainstream to support their idea.

It also may have put the cart before the horse. Perhaps the best way to de-couple Australia from its colonial past would be to first become a republic, then move through the various reconciliation steps requiring constitutional change.

For anyone wanting change, Bill Shorten may have had the right idea some years back.

He didn’t champion a Voice referendum as his first order of business if elected in 2019. Instead, he promised a republic referendum in the first term of a Labor government.

Now we aren’t even going to get one in a second Albanese term.

King Charles (left, with Anthony Albanese) hasn’t turned out to be the unpopular figure many thought he might be; in fact, his cancer diagnosis has only increased public sympathy

So if not now, when?

King Charles hasn’t turned out to be the unpopular figure many thought he might be; in fact, his cancer diagnosis has only increased public sympathy.

And the next generation – William and Kate – remain popular despite Harry and Meghan’s best efforts.

Australia becoming a republic still feels inevitable, but I for one am starting to think it won’t happen in my lifetime.

Republican campaigners have always lectured Australians that to become a confident independent nation we need to become a republic.

However, it seems we have become confident without the change.

Describing it as a ‘must do’ or a ‘need’ just feels silly these days.  

Until the ARM focuses on the mainstream it won’t win over it with lectures from on high.

And yes, I am a republican…