By Ben McKay

As One Nation’s rise transforms Australian politics, supporters of a republic believe the party’s surging nationalism could deal it back into the national conversation.

Or at least that’s the hope, after Anthony Albanese shut the door on a republic in the wake of his failed Voice vote.

Republicans were buoyed by Labor’s return to office in 2022 and the establishment of a ministerial portfolio to explore a republic, more than two decades on from the lost 1999 referendum.

However, Mr Albanese – a lifelong republican – last year argued the time had come to focus on “practical differences to peoples’ lives” like cost of living issues.

That decision enraged many Labor members, given support for a republic has been in the party’s platform for decades.

Daniel White, the founder of Labor for an Australian Republic, estimates 90 per cent of ALP members want the constitutional change and for the prime minister to re-open the issue.

“We were trying to have an Australian head of state for the Sydney Olympics, now we want an Australian head of state to open the Brisbane Olympics in 2032,” he told AAP.

The issue will be debated on the fringe of Victoria’s Labor state conference on Sunday, when the party’s leaders take a back seat and members’ motions come to the fore.

Mr White says momentum is building behind the scenes, with the goal of a resolution at July’s National Conference in Adelaide that would compel the government to pursue the cause should it win a third term.

He believes the politics of the moment suit a republican push: with the rise of One Nation creating strategic opportunity for both the republican cause, and Mr Albanese as he seeks a rallying push.

“Most One Nation supporters would support a republic,” Mr White asserts.

“So that makes this the right time because you’ve got (most of the) Labor party, the Greens and One Nation supporters behind it, which would be enough to win a referendum.”

It’s an open question how One Nation supporters might consider the question of a republic, though party leader Pauline Hanson is opposed.

Ms Hanson told parliament in 2022 Australians “are already in charge, not the Queen”, warning that ” the political class in Australia will never let you vote for a president; they will install their own president and you will have no say”.

“I shudder to think who might be installed.

“Let me think – Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Fitzsimmons or maybe Paul Keating? Or let’s go with Christopher Pyne!” she said.

Recent polling is divided on whether Australians would vote for a republic: a 2024 YouGov survey found a 41-59 per cent split in favour of the negative, while a 2025 Resolve poll had 43 per cent in favour, 28 against and 29 unsure.

Behind those figures is growing discomfort at senior Royals involved in scandal, not least former British prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Australian Republic Movement co-convener Esther Anatolitis said their non-partisan campaign’s priority was “strengthening its presence in the national consciousness” rather than pushing for a particular date for a fresh referendum.

“We strengthen our movement to find our moment,” she told AAP.

She said she had “given a great deal of thought” to how the republic push might fare during the rise of One Nation and far-right extremism.

“A republic is absolutely not something just Labor and Green supporters back. There is a strong contingent of conservative, independent and non-aligned voters,” she said.

“We don’t characterise the republic as progressive cause, it’s simply a democratic inevitability.”

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