Prince Charles has declined a cheeky invitation from the Australian Republic Movement to discuss why he should be the next Australian head of state.
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The Prince of Wales will arrive Down Under next month to attend the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
ARM chair Peter Fitzsimons wrote to Prince Charles in December, inviting him to "address a friendly and respectful audience with complete candour and sincerity".
"We would be delighted to host Your Royal Highness for an address, at any convenient time during the coming visit, on why you, and not an Australian, should be Australia's next head of state," Mr Fitzsimons wrote.
"Should a different topic be preferred, we would be delighted to accommodate this."
ARM national director Michael Cooney said the prince had declined the invitation.
"Without constitutional change, there will be a once-in-a-lifetime transition and a new King of Australia within a few years. Yet today our people know nothing about what this change will look like," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The silence of the man (who) will become Australia's head of state about why he should have the job is hardly reassuring."
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a former chair of the Republic Advisory Committee prior to an unsuccessful 1999 referendum, has previously said the topic was unlikely to be publicly debated during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Australian Associated Press
