Australia and New Zealand: keen on the Queen or republics-to-be?

In Australia and New Zealand, appreciation for the royal family is at an all-time low. Australian PM Anthony Albanese even said that "a republic will happen." He is expected to hold a referendum among Australian citizens about whether they want to keep the monarchy or not.

While we love to catch up on their gossip and gawk at their wealth and styles, the British royals have an ambiguous relationship with Australians and New Zealanders. Let's have a look at photos of their encounters and the things Aussies and Kiwis have said about the royal family.

Since Australia and New Zealand belong to the British Commonwealth of Nations, the British royal house is also their royal house. Both Australia and NZ are constitutional monarchies with Queen Elizabeth II as their current sovereign.

The royal family's website says that "the Queen, by convention, is not involved in the day-to-day business of the Australian Government, but she continues to play important ceremonial and symbolic roles."

The royal family of Queen Elizabeth, including her children and her grandchildren, has always bonded well with Aussies and Kiwis.

On Australia Day, January 26, the royal family promptly sends well-wishes to Australia through its various social media accounts, showing that they are thinking about the country on this special day. In 2022, the palace celebrated Australia Day by posting pictures of the Queen's past visits to Australia. This one is from 2006.

(Image: Twitter, @RoyalFamily)

In April 2022, William and Kate attended a service for the purpose of "commemorating Australians and New Zealanders who have lost their lives in conflict and paying thanks to all those who have served this #AnzacDay." They did so in Westminster Abbey.

(Image: Twitter, @KensingtonRoyal)

A few days later, the Kensington royals tweeted that they were concerned about floods in Australia. "The sheer magnitude and long term impacts the floods in Australia have had on those affected is devastating," they tweeted. "The speed of the destruction has resulted in thousands left without homes, businesses and income."

When thinking of Australians, one word has often stood out for the royals, and that's 'resilience.' All of them have praised the resilience of Australians in dealing with floods, bushfires, and other environmental crises. Recalling "how you’ve come together in the face of such adversity," Meghan and Harry declared, "you are an inspiration to us all."

The royal family recognizes and celebrates New Zealand's Waitangi Day. Commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, an agreement between northern Māori chiefs and the British crown, this day is important in the history of both New Zealand and the monarchy.

Meghan and Harry, who visited New Zealand in 2018, shared new photos of their travels on Waitangi Day in 2020. Below them, they wrote: "As a commonwealth country and a realm, we honour the spirit and diversity of New Zealand, and we feel particularly reminded of the special time we had there during our tour in 2018."

Their family members posted Waitangi Day messages on Instagram in both English and Māori. Prince William and Kate Middleton, as well as Prince Charles, shared a photo of each of them performing the hongi, a traditional Māori greeting.

The royal family has a long tradition of visiting the commonwealth countries Australia and New Zealand.

The royal house generally has good relations with the indigenous peoples of Australia and New Zealand. Australian aboriginals have argued that, since Queen Victoria, the royal family has recognised their sovereignty. Māori, the New Zealand Herald argues, remember the treaty they signed with the British royals and continue to be loyal to it.

In 2003, as a 19-year-old, Prince Harry stayed in Australia for three months to work at a cattle ranch in the Outback. He wanted to learn the trade of an Australian cowboy - a jackaroo.

Prince Harry, and eventually his wife Meghan Markle, won over the many Australians and New Zealanders who met them personally.

Te Tauihu iwi leader Barney Thomas tells RNZ that Meghan and Harry are very different off-camera. He met them at the Abel Tasman National Park. "Prince Harry and his wife were very relaxed. We could tell that because their body language for us was expressive, whereas when they're in front of formal media they're rather upright."

But there are also different sounds about the royal family's popularity in Australia and New Zealand. At the beginning of their 2018 tour, where Meghan got to know Australasia, the New York Times claimed that "Australians have long had a complicated relationship with the monarchy." The paper called the 2018 tour "a charm offensive aimed at sometimes skeptical subjects."

At that time, in 2018, a survey had circulated among Aussies asking their opinion of the monarchy. The main question was: How do Australians really feel about the Royal family?

27 countries participated in the Ipsos survey about the British monarchy. It showed that "people in India, Romania and Malaysia are more interested in Royal news than Australians are."

ABC Life reported that, "while there's clearly a spectrum of feelings about different members of the Royal family, from respect and admiration to morbid fascination and even dislike, the dominant feeling Australians have about the British monarchy is… indifference."

"In terms of consuming news about the Royals," ABC Life reported, "64 per cent of Australians are not at all interested." They "consider the Royal family to be vaguely interesting, but largely irrelevant."

"When it comes to the Royals themselves," ABC Life reports, "the Queen and Prince Harry top the list of most loved." People respect the Queen and have "warm feelings towards the younger princes - William and Harry - and their down-to-earth spouses."

The future King Charles has worse scores. "Only 24 per cent of us have a favourable opinion of him," ABC Life says. "His mother gets almost twice the approval rating at 42 per cent." The Royal Family as a whole only gets the approval of 35 per cent of Australians.

Since 2018, Buckingham Palace has seen many changes. It has been shaken up by Harry and Meghan's withdrawal from official royalty. How do Australians and New Zealanders feel about the 'Megxit' crisis and the current royal house?

News.com reports Australians saying that the monarchy has become "irrelevant to modern Australia." Another medium, 'The Australian,' argues for the abolition of the monarchy altogether. Harry and Meghan "have recognised something that has eluded too many conservatives in Australia for too long," the paper says, namely that the institute of the monarchy “cannot be taken seriously” anymore.

The "excitement among younger Australians over the emergence of the younger generation of royals," 'The Australian' continues, has now "well and truly dissipated." To keep the monarchy going beyond Queen Elizabeth II's reign "would be an anachronism," the paper concludes.

Royalty-sceptics in Australia are mostly on the side of Harry and Meghan. Peter FitzSimons of the Australian Republic Movement (ARM) is quoted by news.com: "They’ve effectively said they’ve outgrown the British Monarchy, and we in Australia can certainly relate to that. In Australia, more than half of us have felt that way for the better part of a generation."

(Photo: Royal Family, Twitter)

On Twitter, the same spokesperson says that Australians are much more forgiving of the prince than the British. Their mentality, "generous towards Harry, seems typical of Australian reaction - while in Britain the response seems to be all but universally vitriolic." Aussies appear to be more laidback about the whole Megxit affair than Britons.

Media in New Zealand suggest that the country still loves Harry and Meghan. RNZ reports that "Harry and Meghan [are] welcome in New Zealand - with or without Royal titles."

Cosmopolitan argues that New Zealand is "very close to Meghan and Harry's hearts." While on maternity leave, "Meghan specially ventured out to New Zealand House in London to join Harry in paying respect to the victims of Christchurch's horrific terrorist attacks." In addition, Prince William visited Christchurch itself. The young royals showed how a monarch can offer important moral support to communities.

Native New Zealanders are fond of Harry and Meghan. Te Tauihu iwi leader Barney Thomas tells RNZ that Meghan "clearly connected easily with iwi."

"Depending on the wishes of the Queen and wider Royal family," Thomas continues, "the couple could advance their role as representative of the Commonwealth." He adds that "if they visited again in a less than Royal capacity, they would be equally welcome."