I read this morning that Katherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is pregnant with another child and, like during her first pregnancy, is undergoing treatment for severe morning sickness. My sympathy and best wishes to her and all that.
When she was carrying Prince George, TPTB, probably at the Queen’s urging, started the ball rolling on changing the rules of succession so that William and Katherine’s child, regardless of its gender, would become 3rd in the line of succession. I recall reading that this changed had been approved throughout the UK, but still needed to be approved by some member nations of the Commonwealth that hadn’t gotten around to it at the time. After George turned out to be male, I never heard more about this.
So, did it get moved to the back burner or did they keep the process going and complete the change? If George gets a baby sister, will she be in line for the throne or will they have to finish the process?
Apparently there was a kerfuffle in Australia (the only country that has not changed it succession law yet) about the succession being subject to the States and Territories’ consent, so before the Commonwealth Parliament can legislate, it must wait for the States and Territories to legislate first.
Nitpick: the Commonwealth needs the States to legislate for this, but not the Territories.
And the States have all legislated, except for Western Australia, where the Bill concerned was introduced into the lower house in February 2014, but has yet to be considered and voted on. And of course it can’t be introduced into the upper house until this has happened. The Bill which the Commonwealth Parliament will consider has been drafted and published, but won’t be introduced into the Commonwealth Parliament until WA gets around to passing its Bill, for which there is no timetable announced.
As others have said, it will make no differences to the Cambridge’s second child. Boy or girl, the child will rank in the succession next after George. It will only make a difference if the second child is a girl, and then the Cambridges have a third child who is a boy. The boy will come ahead of his older sister if all this happens while the Western Australian parliament is still faffing around dealing with trivial matters like taxation, public expenditure, infrastructure, the criminal law, education and health instead of matters of real moment.