Sawt Falasteen - Australian ex-PM says 'more important than ever' to ditch UK monarchy

Turnbull -- who served as prime minister from 2015 to 2018 -- led the country's Republic Movement's unsuccessful 1999 referendum bid to replace the British monarchy with an Australian head of state.

Almost three decades on from that poll and as the British monarchy reels from the arrest of ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor -- the first of a royal in the modern era -- Turnbull told AFP an elected head of state could heal Australia's "tribal" politics.

"I think a republic is more important than ever," he said.

"The monarchy remains this anachronism."

Australia was a British colony for more than 100 years and gained de facto independence in 1901, but has never become a fully fledged republic.

Current Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has issued a full-throated call for Andrew to be removed from the royal line of succession.

Albanese is an avowed republican but has ruled out another referendum on the issue during his tenure.

But Turnbull told AFP he believed Australians would "absolutely" back a system in which the head of state was instead elected by the parliament in Canberra.

"The virtue of having a republic in Australia is that it emphasises the thing we have in common as Australians."

- 'Terrible deal' -

In addition to being one of Australia's most prominent republicans, Turnbull is also an outspoken opponent of the AUKUS, a multi-decade defence pact with Britain and the United States.

The pact aims to arm Australia with a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines and would provide for cooperation in developing an array of warfare technologies.

But Turnbull told AFP that Australia will "almost certainly" get no nuclear submarines (SSNs) out of the deal.

"It's this vast expenditure and this vast investment which will very likely result in us having no submarines at all," he said.

"The US has made it very clear -- it's set out in their legislation -- that no submarines can be sold to us unless the president certifies essentially that their navy doesn't require them," he said.

"At the moment, they are producing about half as many SSNs as the American Navy needs, let alone to cater for the American and Australian needs."

He described it as a "terrible deal" and echoed French ex-defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian's claim that Australia "has sacrificed sovereignty for the sake of security, but will end up losing both".

Turnbull argued that Australia must ditch AUKUS and place its own interests front and centre as Canberra increasingly navigates a world order defined by American "bullying".

- Politics in a 'disrupted age' -

He described American threats to annex Denmark's autonomous territory of Greenland "mind-boggling".

"That's the stuff of a dystopian novel, frankly," he said.

"This is wild stuff. And I think we're in a disrupted age."

But he places little faith in the political party he once led as being able to guide Australia through troubled times.

"The Liberal Party is failing Australia," he said.

That party has endured an existential crisis since their second consecutive defeat by Albanese's Labor last year, torn between centrists and right-wingers sceptical of climate change and urging a tougher line on immigration.

Opinion polling has shown the Liberals falling behind the far-right and populist One Nation party led by Pauline Hanson, a longtime senator notorious for racist outbursts.

This month, the Liberals dumped leader Sussan Ley in favour of the more right-wing Angus Taylor.

Turnbull -- who has described Taylor as the "best-qualified idiot" around -- warned the party faced disaster if it continued down that path.

He told AFP its decision last year to ditch a commitment to net zero emissions was "culture war lunacy".

"The more you go off to the populist right, the more you elevate all of these culture war issues, and, you know, divisive, often racist issues, the more you elevate Hanson -- you can't out-Hanson Hanson."

"Australian politics is decided -- and contested -- in the centre."

F.AbuZaid--SF-PST