AUSTRALIA can never be a great country while a foreigner is head of state and the flag of another nation resides on the Australian flag, former Labor prime minister Paul Keating says.

Mr Keating said Australia should get on with the move to a republic and not wait until Queen Elizabeth dies or leaves the throne.

He acknowledged the great affection of Australians for the Queen for her stoicism and conscientiousness.

"The fact is that Australia can only be a great country when it claims its head of state as one of its own," he told Sky News.

"It will forever have that derivativeness about it while ever our head of state is the Queen of Great Britain and we share her with 16 other countries.

"And by the way, we get around with the British flag in the corner of our flag. Great states do not do these things."

Mr Keating said Prime Minister Julia Gillard, and her predecessors Kevin Rudd, John Howard and Bob Hawke all believed Australia should not become a republic until the current Queen was no longer the Queen.

He said that said a lot about Australians - fundamentally what a weak outfit we are.

"I mean, we are not going to take our republic, we are going to wait till the old lady dies or leaves," he said.

"Of course the next day King Charles and Queen Camilla will be there. And of course, they'll say, `Let's give the new bloke a go.'"

Mr Keating said the royal family would have been quite happy to kiss Australia goodbye and wish us good luck.

He said Queen Elizabeth could then visit Australia and receive an even bigger reception as the head of state of Great Britain, not Australia.

"I think the House of Windsor understands that well. It's only the sort of monarchists and dropkicks here who don't get it," he said.

Mr Keating accused the current Labor government of being half-baked republicans.

"They don't have the imagination about this. They don't see the importance to the country. The republic will say much more to us about ourselves," he said.

"You just imagine the impact on this country psychologically of a shift to an Australian person as head of state."

Originally published as 'We're going to wait for the old lady to die'