Dane royals get gushing welcome in Australia

The Danish royal couple brought glamour to the nation’s dowdy capital yesterday with Crown Prince Frederik and Australian-born Princess Mary earning plaudits from both sides of Canberra’s political divide. Prime Minister Julia Gillard put aside her disdain for hereditary privilege and the institution of marriage to extol a love story that began in a Sydney singles’ bar during the 2000 Olympic Games. “A beautiful young woman meets a handsome prince and they live happily ever after,” a dewy-eyed Gillard said at a lunch in Parliament House. The golden couple, who are on a six-day visit to Australia, have charmed Sydney and are in Canberra before going on to Broken Hill and Melbourne. The prime minister, who is a republican and has a partner rather than a husband, told the gathering that the transformation of estate agent Mary Donaldson into a Danish princess was a “modern-day fairy tale”. Opposition leader Tony Abbott, monarchist, married man and fitness fanatic, marvelled at the handsome prince running a marathon in three hours and 22 minutes. “Many of us in this building would wish to emulate that feat,” said Abbott, an ironman whose personal best for the 42.1-kilometre race is 3:47. Frederik, who has run six marathons, noted that Abbott was in error and that his best time was not 3:22 but 3:06. The most gushing tribute came from indigenous leader Janette Phillips, who said the royal romance had given all Australian women hope that not only Mr Right was out there but even a veritable Prince Charming. It seemed all too much for Frederik, a former navy diver who was in Sydney in 2000 to represent his country in the sailing event when he hooked up with Mary in the Slip Inn bar on the waterfront. He brought the gathering back to earth by morphing into an eco-catastrophist. “Climate change, scarcity of resources and a world population that continues to grow make it unsustainable to continue business as usual,” the father of four said. “We need change. We need innovation.”