ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher slammed celebrity royal worship and called for the republican movement to be more "newsworthy" through a new social media campaign in a Friday speech.
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The speech, to the Republican movement's national body in Canberra, characterised support for the royals as a celebrity cult and said there was a "tendency for many Australians to see a republic as a mere fashion choice."
Ms Gallagher met with and hosted the royals in Canberra in April and acknowledged the popular enthusiasm for royals when they came to town.
But she said the the royal visit had placed a "polite embargo" on the republican movement which now needed to be "newsworthy and willing to contest the space which the royal establishment has so successfully made its own."
She said she hoped social media would revitalise the topic. “While the support of the mass media is crucial to the success of any potential republican campaign, the power of social media cannot be ignored," Ms Gallagher said.
Royal fever gripped the nation's Facebook feeds when Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge toured Australia. Former adviser to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Nicholas Reece, argued at the time that "our youth have unwittingly become a generation of constitutional monarchists."
This is not the first time a political leader has called to refresh the debate – in early 2013, former Deputy Prime Minister Wayne Swan called for a new ''national conversation" on the republic. Labor, however, did not put forward a new referendum on the topic during their time in office.
The former leader of the republican movement, Mr Malcolm Turnbull, was not in attendance on Friday. In response to questions over whether he supported Prime Minister Tony Abbott reinstating Knights and Dames he has previously argued that views about the change to the Honours system "have not been driven by attitudes to the republic".