Australian Monarchist League

During the 1999 republic referendum on the future of Australia's constitutional monarchy, the league along with the four other constitutional monarchist groups formed a united front led by Lloyd Waddy emphasising the weaknesses of the republican models on offer.[4] Positions on the official Vote No Committee were filled according to votes received at the Convention election. Accordingly, all eight monarchist seats went to an alternative organization which had won 73.39% of the monarchist vote, Australians for Constitutional Monarchy (along with two supporting an elected head of state).[5] Nevertheless, the Australian Monarchist League played a role in the proceedings, including Benwell privately taking the Australian Electoral Commission to the Federal Court in an unsuccessful attempt to gain a firmer definition of what would count as a "yes" vote in the referendum, arguing that the planned approach (accepting any vote in which the voter's intention was clear) was such that the counting would be weighted towards "yes" and "opened the door for electoral fraud".[6][7][8][9]

Both prior and subsequent to the referendum, the Australian Monarchist League has acted to protect the image of the constitutional monarchy. Some examples of successes in this area include complaints lodged by the organisation in 2005 regarding an image depicting Princess Diana by photographer Erwin Olaf at the Australian Centre for Photography.[10] Similarly, they wrote to the Japanese ambassador in 1998 after Toyota ran an advertisement showing a Range Rover with the words "Don't worry, Your Majesty, you're not the only British export that's had its day", resulting in Toyota withdrawing the advertisement[11] and in 2008 complained to both the Coopers Brewery and the Advertising Standards Bureau after Coopers ran an advertisement stating "Forget the monarchy, support the publicans", forcing its withdrawal.[12] The league continues to maintain vigilance, more recently lodging complaints against the ABC, claiming bias.

Along with their actions during the referendum, the league have been active in protecting the symbols of Australia's constitutional monarchy; they acted to ensure that the pledge of loyalty to the monarch remained a part of Scouts Australia,[13] and spoke against the removal of references to the Queen from the Victorian legal system.[14] Aside from campaigning, the AML distributed copies of William Dargie's portrait of Queen Elizabeth II after the Commonwealth Government Bookshops ceased selling photographs of the monarch.[15]

Other activities include disseminating literature and maintaining a library on Australian history and the Australian Constitution and conducting public seminars.