Two senior ministers have backed Treasurer Joe Hockey's decision to lead a parliamentary group that will revive debate about an Australian republic.
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Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Education Minister Christopher Pyne, both well-known republicans, said they would support Mr Hockey in any group promoting a change in Australia's head of state.
But Mr Pyne has said it won't happen until the current Queen is off the throne and Australians get what they want: a popularly elected head of state.
Mr Hockey has agreed to co-chair a parliamentary friendship group with Labor senator Katy Gallagher to push for a fresh debate about the issue.
"Joe's elected to be the government, the Coalition-Liberal chair, Liberal co-chair if you like, and so good on him," Mr Turnbull said on Thursday.
"It's absolutely his call. And everyone knows where I stand on the republic. I'm a notorious republican."
Mr Turnbull told reporters on Thursday Mr Hockey "can count on me" to join the group, which he predicted would meet "twice a year and have tea and biscuits".
"My friendship for the republic of course is hardly news. I think, was it Peter FitzSimons who said, 'Hold the front page, Malcolm Turnbull is a republican'? That's old news."
Peter FitzSimons is the head of the Australian Republican Movement, Fairfax Media columnist and a friend of Mr Hockey's.
FitzSimons, who announced Mr Hockey's position with the parliamentary group on Wednesday, prefers a model where the head of state is chosen by Parliament.
In an interview at the National Press Club on Thursday, Mr Pyne said he would join a campaign for a republic, but advocated for any new Australian head of state to be popularly elected.
"I don't think we will have a republic until the current monarch is off the throne. We did that in 1999 and it didn't work. I also don't think we'll have a republic unless we offer the public what they want. At the last election they proved they want to elect their own head of state, they don't want a politicians' republic," Mr Pyne said.
He added Mr Hockey was "perfectly entitled" to co-chair the friendship group.
"This is a democracy. We have to get away from this idea that just because someone has a different view it requires a totally over-the-top response," he said.
The ministers support for Mr Hockey comes after Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Australia was not likely to become a republic any time soon, with his government having "bigger things" on its mind than Australia's head of state.
Mr Abbott, a constitutional monarchist, joined other monarchists in the government who have moved to cast the fresh push for a republic as a peripheral issue.
The Prime Minister said he and Mr Hockey had not discussed the group before it was announced.
"Joe and I talk about many things, but mostly it's the economy and what the government can do to improve the economy by cutting taxes, cutting regulation, getting productivity up," Mr Abbott told the Nine Network's Today program.
"So, no, we didn't talk about this because we've got, I suppose, bigger things on our minds most of the time.
"But there are lots of parliamentary friendship groups and this is just another one of them."
Mr Abbott told an interview with Channel Seven's Sunrise that Mr Hockey was "perfectly entitled to be involved in a friendship group. There are many friendship groups in our Parliament".
But he said did not see any change in the near future.
"I don't think anything is going to change on this issue any time soon because we are a great country with a good system of government and we have made extraordinary progress as a nation over the last couple of hundred of years," Mr Abbott said.
