Sasha Barbagat

And many of us are gearing up for a little public holiday to celebrate the King's birthday tomorrow.

Sorry, not UWA or Queensland, but everyone else is.

And this day inevitably brings up a question Australia has been grappling with for decades.

Should we remain under the monarchy or become a republic?

While no one wants to give up a public holiday, many people continue to question why Australia remains under British royal rule, no matter how symbolic it is.

So today we're bringing you an ep from a couple of years ago that still holds up today, a debate between a monarchist and a republican on what Australia's future should be.

We recorded this when King Charles and Queen Camilla were here for a visit in October two years ago.

And first up, we'll be hearing from the Australian Monarchist League, which is in favour, unsurprisingly, of remaining under the Crown and part of the Commonwealth.

Here's my chat with the group's representative, Alexander Vaults.

Alexander, thanks so much for joining us on The Briefing today.

To kick us off, how excited are you for the King's visit?

Look, I want to get into kind of the for and against side of things.

So the first question around Australia's future as to whether we stay or go, I suppose, is why do you think we should remain as a constitutional monarchy?

Yeah, well, I think that it's inevitable that when a royal comes to town, we start talking about their place in Australia's government.

Look, I'm interested to know your perspective on... You know, Australia's constitutional monarchy has its roots in our colonial past, and that is triggering for a lot of people or it brings up trauma or emotion.

As you said, I think it's hard to keep emotion out of the debate.

In some senses, I agree with you that...

at the end of the day, we're talking about a government and how we're led and how our country works essentially.

But the roots in colonialism is painful for a lot of people.

Do you not see the value in kind of pulling away from that and forging our own path forward?