The Queen will be greeted with respect and affection while in Australia for a 10-day visit, even from republicans.
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Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who oversaw yesterday's welcome to Canberra, said the Queen would always be welcomed by Australians.
''I believe she is very well respected by Australians and I think she is going to be warmly received from the moment she sets foot on Australian soil,'' Ms Gillard said. The visit of Australia's constitutional head of state has attracted the attention of the Australian Republican Movement, which says it might be time to think again about the role as this could be the 85-year-old Queen's last visit down under. But high-profile republican and federal MP Malcolm Turnbull says all Australians, republicans or not, will welcome her visit.
''The republican movement has always been about ensuring Australia's head of state is Australian, so all of our national symbols are unequivocally Australian,'' Mr Turnbull said in Sydney yesterday.
''At the same time, nobody could fail to have enormous respect and affection for Queen Elizabeth.''
Mr Turnbull repeated his statement - made after the 1999 failed referendum on the republic - that the best time to revisit the debate would be after the Queen's reign ends.
''As someone once said to me, 'there are a lot more Elizabethans in this country than there are monarchists' and I think that's probably a keen insight,'' he said.
Federal Liberal deputy leader Julie Bishop, who supports a republic, said the debate was unlikely to be resurrected in the near future.
''I don't see this issue returning to the Australian political agenda for some time,'' she told ABC radio.
However, Ms Bishop agreed Australians would welcome the visit.
''The Queen has been a pillar of strength for the monarchy,'' she said.
Coalition finance spokesman Andrew Robb, a former prominent republic campaigner, said the Queen's visit shouldn't be an excuse to push for constitutional change and there were more important issues than the monarchy.
''We've got major issues that this country has to focus on,'' he said.
The shadow minister for finance and debt reduction founded Conservatives for an Australian Head of State in 1999.
''We don't need more distractions like a debate on a republic.''