It’s not just about collector tea towels and tea cups for the Australian Monarchists League (AML). Just ask young monarchist Matthew Stratton, 22, who’s flying from Melbourne to Canberra to hand out hundreds of flags to the crowd.
The AML has 50,000 members and, surprisingly, 40 per cent are under the age of 30. Matthew and a fellow young royalist will be distributing the flags (at the AML’s own cost), something the League has done for the past 25 years.
Even though Matthew was only in primary school the last time the queen visited Australia, he’s a staunch monarchist and has studied Constitutional Law at uni.
“Our plan is to try and catch his appearances at the Australian War Memorial and Parliament House,” Mathew said. “I’d love to meet him, it’s something to tell the grandkids about. [If I met him] I’d say thank you for coming, keep going, we all support you.”
Matthew has read all 250 pages dedicated to the Crown and its role in Australian law and he is certain our current model is best.
“I just think it’s the best system of government we’ve ever seen,” Matthew said.
“It’s certainly the most stable. The US has just had a third assassination attempt on Trump, we’ve had less problems in Australia and I think we’re better off for it.”
Matthew has been a member of the AML for three years and is also deputy chairman of the Victorian Young Monarchists. While in Canberra, he’s equally as excited to see Queen Camilla as he is of King Charles.
“I’m just as big a fan of Queen Camilla as I am of Charles,” he said. “She’s absolutely the strongest asset to Charles, everything she’s done during the hardest time you can imagine, losing his mother and being thrown into the top job straight after. I imagine not just anyone could do that without support. Charles, like the rest of us, is human, and Camilla’s absolutely been there every step of the way to help.”
Our republican prime minister seems to have lost momentum for an Australian republic, with Anthony Albanese abolishing the portfolio of Minister for the Republic (MP Matt Thistlethwaite) last August.
This has not dampened the Australian Republic’s resolve, however, whose own research claims 92 per cent of Australians are open to becoming a republic and 60 per cent prefer an Australian head of state to King Charles. Their website labels the upcoming royal visit as the “farewell Oz tour”.
“It’s been over a decade since Monarchy have toured down under and the unelected line-up at the top of our democracy inherit Australia’s headline act by birthright,” the Australian Republic Movement stated. “They’ve been waving at us for decades – and now it’s time for us to wave back.”
