King Charles III Australian tour: Queensland Premier Steven Miles recalls how royal refused lamington

First came the mass ‘no, thank you’ to a royal reception with King Charles III on his royal tour this week, and now comes an accusation the King started it all by snubbing an Australian classic.

Ah yes, a classic case of tit-for-tat.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla are due to touch down in Australia on Friday for a nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa.

As part of their six-day jaunt around Australia, the royal couple will be officially welcomed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and a host of important Australians at Parliament House in Canberra on Friday afternoon.

But all six state premiers will be absent from the festivities after they all declined invitations for a range of reasons.

Monarchists were quick to clutch their pearls, dubbing the cabal of state leaders “petty” and “mean” for “insulting” Their Majesties on their first royal tour since King Charles III’s accession — and his first since the 75-year-old was diagnosed with an undisclosed cancer in February.

(It’s worth noting that all states will have representatives at the Canberra event, including their Governors, so cool your jets.)

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen was first to RSVP ‘no’, citing “a number of long-standing commitments”. Her Deputy Ben Carroll is also unable to attend.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said he had a regional cabinet meeting to attend, but insisted his rejection was “with no disrespect to his majesty”. NSW Premier Chris Minns has also reportedly used a cabinet meeting to excuse himself, too.

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff won’t even be in the country (he’s on a US trade trip), and WA Premier Roger Cook said, very simply, he has “other commitments”.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles said he’s a bit preoccupied with trying to win the upcoming state election to attend “the party with the King”.

He told reporters “I’ve got a bit to do here in Queensland”. There’s no time for eating cucumber sandwiches in Canberra when government is on the line!

But, given Mr Miles hosted the then-just-Duke and Duchess Charles and Camilla in Queensland when they attended the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, he said: “I’m sure he [The King] won’t take it personally.”

In fact, the Premier revealed that the King was the first to snub Australia during his 2018 visit.

“I took him to the children’s hospital and we had a really great day there,” Mr Miles said, The Sun reports.

“The highlight was the children had made lamingtons and he looked at me and I said ‘We’ve got to eat it’.

“And he said ‘I will not’, so I ate the lamington. He declined the lamington but I ate it for him.”

Cue the Akubra-clutching. Declining a lamington? From kids? At the children’s hospital? Strewth.

So while Australian monarchists may find six premiers snubbing the King for their other — however specific — alleged commitments “insulting”, consider this: the King started it.