Australia's head of state commands the nation's defence force and has the power to overturn laws and sack the government - yet she lives in Britain, 16,900 km (10,500 miles) away.
Australia remains a constitutional monarchy 216 years after British settlers first arrived, with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state and represented by a governor-general.
Opinion polls show Australia's 20 million people want independence, but are unable to agree on how the country should take the historic step of cutting its formal ties to Britain.
The issue has simmered since a vote in 1999 narrowly rejected a republic because many Australians want a popularly elected president, not one appointed by parliament as proposed in the national vote.
But with an October 9 election looming, the republic issue is back on the agenda after opposition Labour leader Mark Latham pledged to allow another vote as soon as 2007 if he wins office from conservative monarchist Prime Minister John Howard.
"We like to think of ourselves as an independent country. I see no reason why we shouldn't become a republic," said Penny Hand, a mother-of-three and wine grape grower in Mildura, a remote rural town 1,000 km (625 miles) south-west of Sydney.
"I think it's inevitable that it will happen one day. It's a bit of an insult to be dictated to by someone who doesn't even live here," she said.
Opinion polls show that more than half of Australians are in favour of becoming a republic and want another referendum.
But Anne Mansell, a citrus farmer in Mildura with three children, does not believe Australia should become a republic and said the next generation should be left to decide.
"My view is, 'Why change something that's been working perfectly well?'. I think we need to leave it for another generation before it is looked at again - it will be up to my children to decide," Mansell said.
Howard, whose eight-year-old government has edged ahead of centre-left Labour in opinion polls, also does not want to revisit the issue yet. Many blame him for manipulating the 1999 vote by wording the question to include how a president would be elected.
"It's a waste of focus so soon after the last referendum. If people want to revisit it they can but we won't be revisiting it in this coming election. We're more focused on things of direct relevance to people's lives," Howard said this year.
A parliamentary inquiry into an Australian republic recommended last month that the first step should be a vote asking simply whether the country should become a republic with an Australian head of state.
If the outcome was in favour of a republic then the inquiry said a second separate vote should be held to determine its form.
Queen Elizabeth is currently represented by Governor-General Michael Jeffery, appointed on the advice of the prime minister, and a representative for each of the country's six states.
The push for a republic gained some momentum during the past two years after former Governor- General Peter Hollingworth and Richard Butler, governor of the island state of Tasmania, both stepped down amid separate scandals.
Hollingworth was forced to leave the nation's top unelected job in May 2003 amid public anger over his protection of a paedophile priest when he was an Anglican archbishop in the 1990s and over a 40-year-old unproven rape case that was dismissed.
Hollingworth's departure was the biggest scandal to hit the 102-year-old office since 1975, when incumbent Sir John Kerr sacked a Labour government to end a parliamentary deadlock. Kerr was the only governor-general to dismiss an elected government.
Butler resigned after three senior staff walked out just 10 months after he was appointed Tasmanian governor and amid controversy that a republican who wants to loosen ties with Britain should have taken the job.
Voters are keen to resolve the issue, said John Warhurst, chairman of the Australian Republican Movement.
"It's not people's highest priority, people are concerned about the economy and security. But when asked to look at other issues the public opinion polls show that not only do a majority want a republic, they want it resolved in five years," he said.
Although Howard is an avowed monarchist, his anointed heir, Treasurer Peter Costello, is a republican who recently said he was confident Australia would eventually cut ties with the queen.
But Costello does not think Australia should have a president elected by the people.
"The President in my view would have a wider mandate (than the prime minister), and - depending on who won that election - would very actively want to be involved in policy and determination, that is what worries me," Costello said.
Latham has outlined a process to establish a republic similar to that recommended by the parliamentary panel, which would allow voters to decide how a president should be elected.
"I think (becoming a republic) is an emotion about Australian pride, identity, what we are going to be in the future, what sort of country they're growing into. For that reason alone it's an issue we can't ignore," Latham said this year.