ACM has long been alone in pointing out that our monarchy is in fact self funded, a point we made in The Sunday Telegraph on 14 July, 2013.

This is done through the Crown Estate, property and funds accumulated by the Crown. Nothing in the Crown Estate comes from the government. No taxes are involved.

The British government does not subsidise the monarchy. It’s the other way around and has been so during all of The Queen’s reign.

The practice began under King George III.

The fact is that the British government (and thus the British taxpayer) has profited handsomely from The Crown.  

 In addition, the monarchy is major tourist attraction for Britain , and a Royal Visit  to Australia is invaluable in the world wide media attention it draws.

Australia taxpayers pay nothing to maintain The Queen of Australia. (Some of the overheads of a Royal Visit are absorbed in Australia – as are those of our many foreign state visitors. Just as some of the overheads of a state visit  to another country by our  Head of State, the Governor-General, are absorbed by the foreign government.)

Let me stress I am talking about absorbing  overheads. The Queen does not receive a personal income salary nor is superannuation contemplated. Her Majesty makes no personal profit or return from taxpayer funds whatsoever. Nor does she from her Crown Estate.

...ACM campaign…

ACM has been alone in proposing  publicly that the British arrangements be reformed by the  income of the Crown Estate being  returned to The Queen, leaving it to Her Majesty to grant what is not needed to the British government for the welfare of the nation.

In any event, under new arrangements introduced in April 2012, 15% of the Crown Estate is to be returned to its owners the Crown. The government takes the rest.

But some in the press in the UK and Australia  have not caught up with this.

In a major feature on 7 July , in Australia’s most read newspaper, The Sunday Telegraph, “The Crown’s Hidden Jewels, ”  Australia based  Sarah Le Marquand and UK based Charles Miranda jointly wrote that   “the cost to the taxpayer of running the monarchy currently sits at $54.73 million….”

This is not so. Rather than costing the (British) taxpayer $54.73 million, the monarchy is self funded.

Rather than paying, British taxpayers received over $300 million this year from the Crown Estate.

The Sunday Telegraph quite rightly published my letter along these lines in its issue on 14 July 2013.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the press: Say after me, " The monarchy pays for itself."