(CHANTING)
..enslavement of my ancestors!
ALL: (CHANT) Not my king! Not my king!
I don't believe in hereditary monarchy.
Down with the crown!
The psychological toll of saying,
"Look, these people are born special."
MAN: Why are you wasting our money?
Interest is going down and that's a big problem for them.
We just don't need royalty anymore.
Yeah, there's a lot going on right now with the royals
and with a new reigning monarch...
God Save the King!
..it's sparked some pretty big debates on the monarchy's place
in the modern world.
Relevance is absolutely crucial to the monarchy.
The big threat to the future
of the House of Windsor is not mobs storming the gate,
it's not revolution, it's becoming irrelevant.
So why do people think they're becoming irrelevant?
I mean, they were once relevant, right?
Right!
You see, the monarchy is the oldest form of government
in the United Kingdom.
And once upon a time, the royal
family were an absolute monarchy,
which meant they basically
had control over everything.
Check.
But in 1688, they became
a constitutional monarchy,
which meant the royals
stayed the head of state.
But an elected government now had all the power.
Checkmate.
Oh.
I didn't see that coming.
(RULE, BRITANNIA! PLAYS)
The UK is not the only constitutional monarchy.
In fact, a bunch of other countries share the same monarch
as their head of state.
And all these countries are part of the Commonwealth realm,
including us.
So how did that happen?
Well, as a way to grow the British Empire,
England explored the ocean in search of more land to build new colonies
and trade valuable resources.
But this often came at the expense of the people
who already lived in those places.
Take a trip to any Caribbean island,
any country that was under the grip of colonialism,
you will see poverty.
You will see where the resources have been taken from the land
and placed in the wealthy.
Australia is no exception.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
have lived on this continent for tens of thousands of years.
But in 1770, Captain Cook declared Australia as Terra nullius,
or, 'land belonging to no-one'.
And although this wasn't the case,
the land was claimed for the British Crown.
And a couple of hundred years later, when Australia became a federation,
we got a Prime Minister but kept a British king.
(CHANTING)
Over the years, lots of people have debated
whether that should change.
Shouldn't our head of state be an Aussie?
We are smart enough.
And we're certainly old enough.
We can take it from here.
And the coronation of King Charles III
has brought the issue up again.
It's so just outdated.
It's so un-Australian.
It's not symbolic of who we are as a nation.
There's nothing wrong with having the crown in the Constitution
because if it was a problem,
people would be marching in the street about it.
I want to see an Australian as Australia's head of state,
but we have to respect
the institutions which are there,
which Australians have put in place.
God forbid, it's about time we stood on our own two feet,
and we don't need a king and queen to do that.
We can actually do it all by ourselves.
Other countries are talking about change too.
Looking at holding the referendum in 2024.
Ideally, I think in time New Zealand will become
a fully independent country.
We'll stand on our own two feet in the world
as we by and large do now.
It's an issue people are still divided on,
both here and in other Commonwealth countries.
But what do you guys think?
If Australia became a republic, I wouldn't really care.
I'd rather a monarch.
I think he's going to do a really good job being king.
The king or queen of England doesn't live in Australia,
so they don't know what we're like or the peoples like
and I think the Government's got it in control.
Yeah, I wish I could actually meet him.
And one more message for the king.
I believe that if he's a football fan,
he shouldn't have high expectations
for England winning anything anytime soon.