Majority of MPs support Australia becoming a Republic

Every Monday to Friday I’ll be delivering a personally-curated newsletter. Call it the double espresso of news – the morning news kickstart for busy people who want to know what they need to know before they get going.

1. Majority Republic support

Well this is a story I did not expect to read. The majority of Parliament supports Australia becoming a republic, including the avowed conservative MP George Christensen. [The Sydney Morning Herald]

Labor Leader Bill Shorten has written to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who led the failed 1999 Republic referendum campaign, urging him to progress the issue of an Australian Republic. The figures are being published on the eve of Turnbull’s scheduled address to the Australian Republican Movement’s 25th gala dinner on Saturday night. [Stephanie Peatling/Fairfax]

Michelle Grattan says Turnbull will never usher in a Republic and achieving one will be “no cakewalk” when the time comes again (likely when the Queen dies.) [The Conversation]