Dear Belly,

People only understand from their level of perception.

We both know that the
money spent on royal visits could be spent in a
much better way - helping our fellow Australians
who need it. We have a drought on at the moment and our
farmers need hay to feed their livestock. Yet here we
are - spending on royal visits - and spending over millions
for each visit.
When Charles and Camilla came out - that cost us even
more because Charles decided he wanted to visit
Vanuatu on the side - Australia picked up that tab as well.
We are colonials - after all.

We pay not only for their transport, accommodation, food, security,
gifts, entertainment - et cetera - but for their entourages as well. the Queen had 15 people with her, Charles and Camilla, 13, and Harry and Meghan had 10. People such as - private secretaries, personal assistants, hairdressers, royal communications team, and even an orderly to carry their luggage.

Nice work, if you can get it.
But at what cost to us?

The Poms aren't trying.
Parliament House in 1988 cost 1.1bn , inflated to $2.2bn today.
In 2011–12 there were 727 staff at Plmt.
Don't ask about the cost of Manus and Nauru you don't want to know.

ALTRAV,

Well said, Sir, well said.

Is Mise,

Well done is better
than well said.

So no-one wins the cricket , everyone is royalist.And no good doing baseball , we're yankees. Nothing left but camel races..agghh ..

Foxy, I didn't want to bring it up, but seeing as how no-one else has said anything, I feel it should be said before this topic dies.
I note a lot of concern about the cost of Royal visits.
As I have said these costs are already being spent on the govt workers who are seconded to the Royals during there visit, so no cost there.
The entourage you speak of is mostly made up of their own people, so no real cost there.
Food and other expenses are too small to be of any threat or benefit to the farmers or anyone else for that matter.
No here is the point no-one seems to want to mention.
When we get a Royal visit it is not an impost to Australia but a gain.
You see no one has bothered to look into how much these visits generate for the local economies, people on the ground, and therefore the country.
So given that they don't cost us anywhere near what the republicans would have us believe, but in fact do the opposite by generating income for us all, I would say that's a win, win