Australia’s new Labor prime minister has created an “assistant minister for the republic”, sparking celebrations among those who wish to end the Queen’s role as head of state.
Anthony Albanese announced that Matt Thistlethwaite, a Sydney MP, would take the role. Previous Labor leaders have promised a referendum on removing the Queen as Australia’s head of state but Albanese, a long-time republican, did not make the promise a feature of his election campaign before his victory in last week’s general election.
“We are on our way!” tweeted the author and former rugby international Peter FitzSimons, a prominent republican. “Let the record show, for the first time in the history of the Commonwealth, Australia has a member of the government singularly devoted to removing the Crown, and helping Australia become a republic,” he added.
Albanese, 59, has described Australia becoming a republic as “inevitable”. However, his party said during the general election that it was not committed to holding the necessary referendum on the issue in its first three-year term.
In 1999 Australians narrowly voted against becoming a republic, following disagreement over plans for MPs, not the public, to choose the Queen’s replacement. Almost 55 per cent of voters opposed breaking constitutional ties with Britain.
The republican move came as Albanese announced his cabinet, hours after updated counting of postal votes from the May 21 election gave his party a clear parliamentary majority.
Labor has 77 of the 151 seats in parliament, meaning Albanese will not have to rely on the support of independent MPs as earlier results had suggested.
Speaking at the first meeting of Labor MPs since the election, Albanese said voters had entrusted him with an “enormous responsibility”. He made clear he wanted his party, which has been in opposition for nearly a decade, to stay in office for at least two terms.
The prime minister vowed to deliver on promises to fix the poorly performing elderly care system, provide expanded and cheaper childcare, strengthen the health system and introduce legislation for a national anti-corruption commission.
He also promised to cut greenhouse emissions to levels below those agreed by the defeated centre-right prime minister, Scott Morrison.
Albanese, 59, will also hold a national referendum so that a new body giving Aboriginal people “a voice to the parliament” can be enshrined in the Australian constitution.
“We will show that we’re an inclusive and mature country by recognising the privilege that we have of sharing this great island continent of ours, this great multicultural nation, with the oldest continuous civilisation on the planet and recognising that in our constitution with an enshrined voice to parliament,” Albanese told the meeting of MPs at the national parliament in Canberra.
“I’ve been in this building now for 26 years. I’ve had six at this end of the corridor [the government party room]. I don’t intend going back,” he said.
The new prime minister flew to Tokyo straight after his election last week to meet President Biden and his Indian and Japanese counterparts Narendra Modi and Fumio Kishida.
He will travel to Indonesia on Sunday to meet President Widodo. The country of 275 million, four hours flying time from Australia’s north, with the world’s largest Muslim population, was “a very important” relationship to Australia, Albanese said.
“I want part of the Australian story to be dealing with the national security challenges that we have in our region, that we’ve set about making a difference on. I believe we can do that if we maintain the sort of discipline that we have shown over the last three years,” he told MPs.
MPs in the outgoing centre-right coalition on Monday chose the former defence minister Peter Dutton as their new leader after Morrison stood down.
Dutton, 51, a former police officer and later a business owner, was highly critical of China while defence minister and warned during the election campaign that Australians should prepare for war.
