SYDNEY (Reuters) -&nbsp;Australia&nbsp;and New Zealand on Sunday celebrated the&nbsp;coronation&nbsp;of&nbsp;King&nbsp;Charles III with&nbsp;21-gun&nbsp;salutes&nbsp;in their capitals, after the countries' leaders, both republicans, attended the&nbsp;coronation&nbsp;ceremony in London.
King&nbsp;Charles is head of state in&nbsp;Australia, New Zealand and 12 other Commonwealth realms outside the United&nbsp;Kingdom, although the role is largely ceremonial.
Both nations held events on Sunday to celebrate the&nbsp;coronation, with ABC television broadcasting a&nbsp;21-gun&nbsp;salute in front of&nbsp;Australia's parliament in Canberra.
A military flypast scheduled to take past afterwards was cancelled due to poor weather, Defence&nbsp;Australia&nbsp;tweeted.
In New Zealand, the&nbsp;NZ&nbsp;Defence Force said the army fired a&nbsp;21-gun&nbsp;salute from Point Jerningham in the capital Wellington.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his New Zealand counterpart Chris Hipkins were in London on Saturday for the&nbsp;coronation&nbsp;at Westminster Abbey.
Both Albanese and Hipkins are in favour of their countries breaking&nbsp;with the monarchy, but said they would still pledge their allegiance to&nbsp;King&nbsp;Charles.
The death of Queen Elizabeth last September reignited debate, particularly in&nbsp;Australia, about the need to retain a distant constitutional monarchy.
The country held a referendum in 1999 on becoming a republic with 55% of voters opposed, while more recent polls have shown varying levels of support.
&nbsp;
(Reporting by Sam McKeith; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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Australia, NZ mark King Charles' coronation with 21-gun salutes