KATE and William have been invited to tour Down Under by the Aussie PM after he shared tea with the King.
Anthony Albanese said he was “hopeful” and there was a “standing invitation” for the Prince and Princess of Wales to visit in the “coming period”.
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The Australian Prime Minister was speaking after jetting to Balmoral for a 90-minute official visit to see King Charles.
They posed for photos and the PM, known as ‘Albo’ presented a framed photo of himself and fiancee Jodie Haydon with the King and Queen from their tour of Australia last year.
Charles and Camilla embarked on a successful nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa last October with more than 10,000 people turning out at Sydney Opera House on the final day.
Speaking after his meeting with the King, Albanese was asked whether the Prince and Princess of Wales would soon tour Australia themselves.
He said: “I’m certainly hoping there will be one, there’s a standing invitation that the royal family are always welcome in Australia.
“It was wonderful to welcome King Charles and Queen Camilla to Australia recently, that had a very successful visit and His Majesty is very engaged and I hope that the Prince and Princess of Wales are able to visit as well and we are hopeful that might occur in the coming period”.
The last time Prince William and Princess Catherine visited Australia was in April 2014 with nine-month-old Prince George.
George is now 12-years-old and the royal couple now have Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7.
The successful three-week trip included official visits to Sydney, Uluru, and Canberra.
There have been calls ever since for the family to return and it would be seen as a blockbuster visit.
Protocol dictated that the new monarch visit the realm where he is Head of State before the heir to the throne.
But the Aussie PM’s public appeal has now launched fresh calls for a tour by the family-of-five to happen.
Kate and William have not been on a major foreign tour together since their ill-fated trip to the Caribbean for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022.
But both did appear together in Boston, USA, in December of the same year.
The Princess of Wales was diagnosed with cancer last year and is now in remission but aides are carefully managing her workload.
Prince William has spent the past week at Balmoral where he enjoyed ‘father-and-son’ time with Charles.
But it is not believed he met the Aussie PM and did not join Charles and Camilla who were pictured at Crathie Kirk church yesterday morning.
Charles and Camilla’s successful Australian tour was so popular many sources believe it dampened calls for a referendum on ditching the Crown.
Albanese also said after his Balmoral trip, his government had no plans to hold a referendum for Australia to become a Republic, but he did not rule it out after his term.
Despite contrary claims, sources on both sides of the Atlantic there are no plans for Harry to embark on a ‘half-in, half-out’ return.
Both sides also deny or ‘high-level talks’ for Charles and Harry to take part in public engagements or proposals for the duke to return five or six times in the next year.
There is currently no date in the diary for Harry to return but sources close to the King say the door remains open to visit for a cup of tea.
It is understood there has yet to be an official invite issued to the Royal Family for Kate and William to travel Down Under.
A spokesman for the Prince and Princess of Wales declined to comment.
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COUPLE ARE SUPERSTARS
By ARTHUR EDWARDS
IF anything is a sure fire hit, it is the Prince and Princess of Wales going on a royal tour of Australia.
Even more so if they were to bring their three children, George, Charlotte and Louis with them.
Every time I have been with Prince William Down Under the crowds have thronged to see him with total delight.
When he went with Catherine and their then baby son George in 2014 they were mobbed wherever they went, whether it was the zoo or at Sydney’s Manly beach with the lifesavers.
William and Catherine are probably the most popular royal couple in the world right now and will be treated like superstars.
The first time William went was in 1983 when he was nine months old with his parents Charles and Diana.
I have never seen crowds like it.
William is now the Prince of Wales and he should be representing the King on these major tours.
Whenever the Australians meet the royals, talk of this key member of the Commonwealth becoming a republic is drowned out.
Australia’s pro republican prime minister Anthony Albanese ruled out having another referendum on their head of state after visiting King Charles at Balmoral on Saturday.
