Given the interest in here Australia in the British royal family – and by definition our own as well – it is a bit surpriosing that a fascinating piece in The Los Angeles Times (via Crikey) on the cost of running the monarchy was hardly mentioned in the Australian media.
The members of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy will be happy to know that keeping the queen of Australia costs the British public 61 pence per taxpayer per year – or $86 million. This is what it costs to produce a B-grade Hollywood movie and the comparison will not be lost on many people.
But whilst cries of "it doesn't cost us a cent" will be heard amongst these misguided folks – they conveniently forget that keeping up the eight viceroys, whose names are largely unknown, representing the foreign, non-resident, unelected head of state, costs the Australian taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
While we insist on keeping the outdated, irrelevant colonial system of government, the cost will rise sharply every year, overtaking what the hapless British pay for the largely ignored and ridiculed soap opera known as the House of Windsor.
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