Nic Hayes: Anthony Albanese hopes King Charles’ visit provides a royal distraction

With His Majesty King Charles III and Her Majesty Queen Camilla touching down in the land down under on Friday, they’re likely packing at Buckingham Palace for a six-day visit of Australia as I write.

The tour will mark the first time on our shores for Charles as King.

As Charles pauses his treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer made public in February this year, the trip to Australia (and Samoa) will be a challenge for the 75-year-old, but it couldn’t come at a better time for under-pressure Anthony Albanese.

Charles and Camilla will be jetted and paraded around on the public purse to visit key dignitaries and locations for maximum public relations effect, and many Aussies will welcome the new residents of the palace with much fanfare.

The visit will be a timely distraction from local and domestic politics, and with the major parties struggling to inspire a nation ahead of a Federal election in May next year, both leaders will be looking to maximise photo opportunities.

But that dreaded word for monarchists — republic — is rearing its head in the media and on social media platforms with the same arguments put forward about how ridiculous it is for Charles, a British citizen, to be King of Australia and it being time for us to cut, once and for all, the links to the motherland.

But the failed republic referendum of 1999 was a long time ago and there is simply no political will in Australia today for a change to challenge the status quo.

There will be no change to our political system or Constitution, particularly during the reign of King Charles. And the Prime Minister certainly won’t go launching any more referendums after his failed Voice to Parliament push.

Then there was this week’s optics gaffe. With a cost-of-living and housing crisis being painfully felt across Australia, Mr Albanese purchased a $4.3 million clifftop home on the NSW Central Coast. This communications expert doesn’t begrudge a Prime Minister purchasing an aspirational home but come on Albo, read the room.

That followed a string of missteps by Albanese that I’m sure his communications team are still wincing at. Swept away in the heat of the moment during question time in October, Albo slung a gibe at the Opposition weaponising the medical condition Tourette’s syndrome, to public disgust.

And before that, back in August, he stepped on a communications landmine when he publicly backtracked on the Government’s scrapping of LGBTQI+ questions in the census.

The royal visit will be particularly well received by our aging population and younger generations, many of whom seem to revel in the pomp and ceremony that a royal visit brings.

It will be a welcome change in narrative for media, away from the US election, the war in Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East.

The King and Queen’s visit will be an opportunity for Mr Albanese to rebuild. Standing alongside royalty has the potential to raise stature and reverse an approval rating that has been dwindling.

But will it be enough? If the poll numbers don’t improve for Mr Albanese after the royal visit, it could be the death knell for what would be a one-term Labor government, the first on a Federal level since the end of WWII. And that’s a Wikipedia page entry that no prime minister wants.

Nic Hayes is the managing director of Media Stable