Harry and Meghan have been upfront about their motives for years. We should not be surprised about why they are really back in Australia

This is, by no means, a defence of Prince Harry and Meghan.

But a huge part of the commentary surrounding their controversial non-royal tour of Australia must be addressed: the outrage over their true motives for coming back eight years after their first visit.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrived in Australia on Tuesday morning, their Qantas flight landing in Melbourne – the first stop on their four-day visit focused on community resilience, support for the armed forces and mental health.

Their charitable endeavours will run back to back with Harry and Meghan's lucrative speaking engagements. And here's where we come to the main objective of their Australian visit: to make money.

That should come as no surprise to anyone.

However, there's been so much shock and bewilderment from many sectors of the media – television, print and online – that Harry and Meghan's tour is, primarily, a money-making endeavour.

Prince Harry and Meghan have been upfront about their motives for six years now.

In January, 2020, the couple announced they were stepping back as senior working royals to "become financially independent".

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Financial gain was Harry and Meghan's new mission and while they initially insisted their new life would continue "to fully support Her Majesty The Queen", their coveted half-in, half-out approach to official duty was swiftly rejected by Her late Majesty and the royal household.

At the end of a one-year trial period, the money started to roll in.

After all, the Sussexes had to pay for their new Montecito mansion and private bodyguards now they were no longer under the protection of the UK's security services.

First came the rumoured $120-million deal with Netflix, which saw Harry and Meghan find huge commercial success with the release of their tell-all documentary series, Harry & Meghan in 2022.

Other projects with the streamer, including the duchess' With Love, Meghan series, – while a hit amongst her loyal fans – failed to reach the same level of success with wider audiences.

In 2021, Prince Harry and Meghan gave a tell-all interview to Oprah Winfrey – their first since leaving the royal family – which saw Winfrey's Harpo Productions make a hefty $7m (approx. $9.8 million) for American television network CBS. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex said they were not paid for their involvement.

Three years later Prince Harry published his memoir, Spare. The book was a commercial hit and became the fastest selling non-fiction book ever.

Since 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan have headlined various speaking events in the US and one in the UK (just before the death of Queen Elizabeth II).

Australia is a market the Sussexes could win, commercially, and now is their prime opportunity to try.

The duchess recently cut ties with Netflix to go out on her own with her lifestyle brand As ever. Australia is expected to be the next market for its expansion, outside of the US.

Throughout the visit, the duchess will hold private business meetings as she prepares for the local launch. Curiosity about Meghan's jams, flower sprinkles, candles and wine will no doubt see the products do well, initially at least, once they go on sale.

Make no mistake, this is not a criticism of Prince Harry and Meghan for embarking on their visit to Australia.

The first events to be announced, weeks ago, were Harry and Meghan's high-profile ticketed speaking events.

The duke will be the keynote speaker at the InterEdge Psychosocial Safety Summit in Melbourne on Thursday. Tickets were originally priced at $1978 but they have since been slashed by 50 per cent to around $997. Proceeds will go to Lifeline Narrm's 24/7 crisis support services in Victoria but Harry will be getting some kind of appearance fee.

Meghan will make a brief appearance at a women's-only retreat in Coogee hosted by the Her Best Life podcast where tickets start at $2699, while the VIP experience costs $3199. The event, limited to just 300 tickets, is yet to sell-out despite huge publicity around it.

Perhaps both events would have sold more tickets had they been the first time Prince Harry and Meghan have spoken, but their many previous interviews, podcasts etc would make many wonder what else they have to say to justify such a high ticket price.

The couple's other, very noble, charitable engagements were confirmed later and were tacked on to the program not only to justify the long journey to Australia but to support issues they've long been aligned with.

Their events will focus on community resilience, support for the armed forces and mental health.

Prince Harry and Meghan's Australian tour had reportedly been in the works for a year but was originally meant to be smaller.

It was only expanded when the dates for the couple's business arrangements worked in with their various charitable endeavours.

Friday is promising to be the most visually spectacular moment of the tour when Prince Harry and Meghan take to the water to sail around Sydney Harbour with Invictus Australia.

It will also be a momentous personal moment for Prince Harry whose greatest legacy will be that of the Invictus Games.

The tournament was created by the duke in 2014, having seen first-hand how sport can help inspire the recovery and rehabilitation of wounded servicemen and women.

Harry's own experience in the army – he did two tours of duty in Afghanistan - helped him through the turmoil suffered in the wake of the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales. The army also gave Harry a purpose when his own life was often overshadowed by that of his brother Prince William, the heir to Harry the spare.

In 2018, Prince Harry brought the Invictus Games to Australia for the first time and one of the events was a boat ride on Sydney Harbour. A photo of a beaming Harry, sitting alongside Meghan, on a speedboat, is one of the tour's most memorable.

Much of the anger about Harry and Meghan's Australian visit comes from the fact that some taxpayer money will be used to protect the couple while there are here.

The visit is being paid for privately, but the Australian Federal Police is expected to support the couple's private security detail from the US, as per standard procedure when high-profile guests come here.

The outrage over Harry and Meghan's financial motives in Australia should end.

Perhaps some in the media, and indeed members of the public, behind such narratives are forgetting the very reason they left the royal family in 2020.

Yes, privacy was a huge issue. And it can be argued Harry and Meghan, through all their actions in the past six years, have been more visible than ever. Their children Archie and Lilibet are regular fixtures on Meghan's Instagram page.

But they said all along they had to make money. Like everyone else, Harry and Meghan have bills to pay and children to raise.

It is a sad state of affairs that there is more interest in Harry and Meghan's non-royal tour than when Australia's first ever reigning queen, Mary of Denmark, returned home last month, purely because of the financial angle.

Where the outrage and anger is better directed is the continued use of Harry and Meghan's royal titles.

Organisers for both speaking events are selling tickets promoting them as the 'Duke and Duchess of Sussex'.

This would have been approved by the couple's teams, of course.

And it is something that Prince Harry's grandmother would not have been happy about.

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