Australian taxpayers will be on the hook for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s policing costs once the couple touch down for their private visit to cities including Melbourne and Sydney next week.
Prince Harry and Meghan’s team have maintained the trip, which is not an official royal tour as they are no longer senior working royals, is being privately funded. But some policing services provided for the couple will be coming out of the public’s pocket.
“The New South Wales Police Force will conduct an operation to ensure public safety is maintained during the visit by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex,” the spokesperson told this masthead.
“The operation will require some additional security measures throughout their stay in New South Wales, while minimising any disruption to the community.”
NSW Police provides most of its services to the general community free of charge.
For private events that require security beyond normal community policing – for example, music festivals, traffic control for film and television shoots, sporting events – the force provides “user pays” policing services, where the event organisers bear the cost for uniformed officers to work in their off-duty hours.
There is no user pays arrangement for Harry and Meghan’s visit. Police services will be focused on any event where there is potential for public involvement, and will be part of NSW Police’s expenditure.
A spokesperson for Victoria Police said it is aware two high-profile people are visiting Melbourne in a private capacity this month, and directed this masthead to event organisers and relevant representatives.
“Police routinely assess events and visits and will deploy resources as necessary to ensure community safety,” the spokesperson said. “Victoria Police does not provide comment on specific operational arrangements.”
Harry and Meghan’s itinerary is largely different from their previous trip to Australia, notably including ticketed events held by private organisations behind closed doors.
Public meet and greets are standard for visits made by working royals hosted by Commonwealth realms as representatives of the UK Government or the British royal family, as was the case when Harry and Meghan visited Australia in 2018.
As such, the newlyweds were provided 24-hour police protection from the UK, with assistance from the Australian Federal Police, and travelled with a police motorcade everywhere they went during their nine-day, state-funded visit.
That plus transport, accommodation and incidentals cost Australian taxpayers a total of $410,580.
Now, Harry and Meghan are private citizens, and are travelling to Australia for a series of private, business and philanthropic engagements – as they did over four days in Colombia in 2024, when vice president Francia Márquez invited the duke and duchess for a series of events aimed at promoting mental health.
Per London’s The Telegraph, Harry and Meghan paid for their own flights, accommodation and general expenses. But Colombian taxpayers shelled out about $85,000 for internal transport and security.
Security services have been a sore point for Harry and Meghan since they were stripped of their publicly funded police protection in the United Kingdom in February 2020, following their high-profile resignation as senior working royals and self-imposed exile to the United States.
Harry has long argued that the level of risk he, Meghan and their two children – Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four – face in the United Kingdom was not reduced by his and Meghan’s decision to step back from royal duties.
He took legal action against the Home Office in 2022 after being informed that private individuals, even if they offer to pay for it themselves, are not permitted to access state security. The High Court ruled against him in February 2024, and his appeal was formally denied in May.
The Royal and VIP Executive Committee (RAVEC), which authorises security on behalf of the Home Office for senior members of the British royal family, is undertaking a full risk assessment to decide on reinstating police protection for Harry and Meghan.
British media has reported civil servants on the committee fear public backlash if Harry and Meghan are given taxpayer-funded security.
It was backlash in Australia by way of a Change.org petition called “No Taxpayer-Funding or Official Support for Harry & Meghan’s Private Visit to Australia!” that prompted a representative for Harry and Meghan to issue a statement in March. It now has 43,300 signatures.
“It’s a moot point. The trip is being funded privately, so I’m not sure what this petition hopes to achieve,” a spokesperson for the Sussexes told the Daily Mail.
Harry is due to give a keynote address at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit, which runs from April 15 to 16, in Melbourne. In-person tickets start from $997.
Meghan, meanwhile, will appear at Her Best Life‘s “girls’ weekend like no other” at InterContinental Sydney Coogee Beach from April 17 to 19. Tickets start from $2699 per person, and for an extra $500, guests can nab a “group table photo” with the duchess.
With Bevan Shields and Angus Delaney
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Bronte Gossling is a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAtoday and Brisbane Times.Connect via email.From our partners
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.smh.com.au ’
