Future Australian President

Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on the arrival of their new daughter.

A new baby is a joyful time in any family. In Australia, around 850 babies were born today. While the media might be preoccupied with the birth of one child in the UK, I'd like to congratulate those Australian parents and families who welcomed their new babies today.

The relentless celebrity already surrounding the new princess will continue to add to the royal stamp of approval.

Nevertheless this royal celebrity is an image dominated by an obsessive media and popular cultural landscape, which treat royalty as entertainment rather than as a political institution.

I hope one day that any Australian child will have the opportunity and honour to become an Australian Head of State, and not because he or she has had the privilege to have been born into Britain's royal family. I look forward to the day when Australia's Head of State is determined by merit, not birth right, and affirms Australia's values as a free, fair, democratic, multicultural nation.