“Climate change, marriage equality, housing affordability, now Republic too hard for Turnbull. Time for the PM to lead his party, not follow,” Shorten tweeted.
He also offered to “work together to deliver an Australian head of state”.
Support for a republic has wavered over the years, with a Fairfax-Nielsen poll in 2014 finding that 51 percent of the 1,400 people surveyed favoured the status quo compared to 42 percent supporting a republic.
Turnbull said question marks about how an Australian head of state would be elected — directly by the people or via a parliamentary appointment — had weakened support for a republic during the 1999 referendum.
