Australia’s Left-wing government has delayed plans to hold a referendum on replacing King Charles as head of state in the same week it confirmed that a royal visit will take place.

Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister and an avowed republican, had proposed to hold a republican referendum if he won a second term in 2025, but his government has now said it must focus instead on the cost of living crisis.

“It’s not a priority at the ­moment,” said Matt Thistlethwaite, assistant minister for the ­republic, a position created to advocate for the cause when Mr Albanese was first elected in May 2022. “The priority for the government at the moment is obviously dealing with cost-of-living pressure and assisting households and businesses to get through this difficult time.”

High inflation and rising interest rates 

High inflation and rising interest rates have put Australian families under severe pressure since 2021. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has shown real household disposable income fell 4.3 per cent in the year to September 30 – the biggest decline since the 1980s.

Labour’s shift comes in the same week that Mr Albanese confirmed King Charles and Queen Camilla will visit Australia.

The visit, expected to take place around October, will be the royal couple’s first trip to Australia since 2018 when they opened the Commonwealth Games on the Queensland Gold Coast. It will also be a key test of his popularity as monarch.

Elizabeth II’s death in 2022 was widely considered to have increased Australians’ mood for constitutional change to a republic.

46 per cent Australians favour republic 

An opinion poll held just after her passing suggested 46 per cent of Australians favoured a republic, while 54 per cent preferred the current system of government.

Despite the change of course, Mr Thistlethwaite confirmed that an Australian republic remains a Labour policy “for the longer term” and said it was something that should be discussed with the public “at some stage”.

To pass a referendum in Australia, two hurdles must be jumped. The first is that more than 50 per cent of Australians must vote yes, and the second that it must win support in a majority of states. If three states supported a referendum and three states opposed it the referendum would fail, even if more than 50 per cent voted in favour.

Mr Thistlethwaite said the failure of the ‘Voice to Parliament’ referendum in October 2023 – in which 60 per cent of people voted no – had made it “a lot harder” to hold a referendum on the republic. The Voice had sought to give greater political rights to indigenous people.

King Charles is the head of state in 14 of the Commonwealth countries. Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Dominica removed the late Queen as their head of state in the 1970s, while Barbados followed suit in November 2021.

Jamaica has scheduled a referendum on whether to cut ties with the British monarchy later this year.