She recently jetted to Britain to report on Prince Harry and his new bride Meghan’s long-anticipated royal wedding. But despite Lisa Wilkinson gushing about her love of all things royal on social media, having photos taken at London landmarks and proudly holding the Union Jack flag – she has now revealed she’s backing her husband’s campaign to make Australia a republic after all.
Peter Fitzsimons is the current chair of the Australian Republic Movement, and regularly shares his thoughts on the country parting ways from the British monarchy for good. Now, his wife Lisa has backed the movement, and said the fact Australia still doesn’t feel ready to have its own Head of State is “archaic”.
Writing in her column for Ten Daily, she insisted she’s a huge fan of the royal family, and hit back at people who questioned her reporting on the wedding recently, while her husband is so opposed to Australia having a Monarch in the first place.
“Funny, because last time I looked, it was 2018. And the last time I sought approval from my husband on whether he thought it was OK if I reported on a story was, let me see . . . never,” she began.
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The Project star went on to express her love of the royals, applauding both Harry and Meghan as “genuinely good souls, with passions for causes that matter”. She also revealed how much she’d enjoyed her time in London over the last week.
But she then added: “Throughout our married life there have been many issues Pete and I don’t see eye to eye on (and as Harry and Meghan will soon learn, that is no bad thing if you want to keep things interesting), but as it happens, the idea of Australia having it’s own Head of State is not one of them.
“Look, Pete may be a little more fervent in his views than me, and perhaps a little less patient for change. But to my eye, the idea that more than a century after the country of Australia came into existence through a Federation, we are somehow still not yet ready to have a trusted, respected one of our own as our true Head of State, seems, well, a little archaic.”
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Throughout her controversial column, Lisa insisted she has the “utmost respect” for the Queen, but added that it’s no longer about her – and it’s instead about the 24 million people in Australia who are aware they’re now “capable” of splitting away from the royals.
“When we do eventually become a republic, the great news is, all the glitz and harmless glamour of those fairytale royal lives, all the fashion wins and faux pas, the births, the deaths and yes, the marriages will go on,” she concluded. “And many of us, republicans or not, members of the Commonwealth or not, will want to sneak a peek at the theatre of it all.”
As the co-founder of the Australian Republican Movement, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has previously revealed his own plans to turn Australia into a republic, but he doesn’t believe that a referendum on the matter would be supported during the Queen’s reign.