Decline of more than just an invite

Was Craig Foster's grandstanding the dying embers of republicanism in Australia?

Ever keen to get himself in the headlines, Australia’s Godfather of Woke Craig Foster publicly bleated out that he declined an invitation to be in the presence of HM King Charles III and HM Queen Camilla when they visit Australia. While it’s not unknown for people to decline such an invite, Craig Foster simply couldn’t help but make an issue out of it.

Of course, he could choose not to, but this never occurs to him. But as a monarchist, I’m actually glad he made an issue out of it. Earlier this year, he quit as co-head of the ARM after a falling out with former Senator Nova Peris over Israel - highlighting a growing divide in “progressive” circles on geopolitics. But even after leaving his role in the ARM, Foster continues to do irreparable damage to what looks like a lost cause.

Next month marks 25 years since the 1999 constitutional referendum in Australia, while this month marks a year since the Voice referendum. Both of which were decisively defeated by common people at the polls. If anything, the republic vote set the tone for the politics of the new century - a growing social and cultural divide between increasingly cloistered urban liberal elites and the rest of society.

Australians are done with constitutional issues, and I suspect Canadians (and the rest of the Commonwealth) would be too. The 1990s was the time when it seemed “inevitable” that Quebec would become independent, Australia (and the rest of the realms) would become a republic and we would have reached the “end of history”. But history returned in the new millennium, and the Boomer generation’s indulgences were put on the backburner or buried.

Last but not least, more Australians get to know what football supporters have always known about Craig Foster - opinionated, self-promoting and with a messiah complex.