Amid the former Prince Andrew’s disgrace a republican PM leading a progressive government should go out and make the case, fighting to bring the country with him

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Just before he got himself into trouble with an offhand comment about Grace Tame this week, Anthony Albanese was remarkably frank about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Towards the end of an event in Melbourne on Tuesday, the prime minister was asked to give one word answers about a list of personalities appearing in the news. When Sam Weir, the editor of the Herald Sun, raised the former Prince Andrew, Albanese called him a “grub”.