Queen Elizabeth II is 90 today — 21 April 2016. It has
always seemed absurd that Australians acknowledge the birthday of Queen
Elizabeth II at a completely different time to her actual birthday. In
Queensland, it is even more absurd with moving it
this year from June to October. However, her image on the new $5
banknote certainly does not accurately reflect her age.
Today is Queen Elizabeth II’s actual 90
th birthday. Congratulation to her.
In 2014, I asked on the public holiday given for her birthday in Queensland if it isn’t “
time to break free?” At
the time, there had been a number of abdications by European monarchs.
Queen Elizabeth II is unlikely to abdicate. It is most likely the queen
will stand by her promise to serve as monarch for the rest of her life.
The only time she has suggested she may agree to abdicate is at the end
of Sue Townsend’s brilliantly satirical novel
Queen Camilla,
in which the UK has elected a republican government and the Royal
Family has been exiled. Prince Charles will have to keep waiting.
The Reserve Bank of Australia has said that the new $5 note is a
birthday gift for the Queen and has unveiled the design of the new $5
banknote, including new
security features to prevent counterfeiting. The Reserve Bank of Australia Governor, Glenn Stevens,
said:
'Innovative new security features have been incorporated to help
keep Australia’s banknotes secure from counterfeiting into the future.
As can be seen in the images, these include a distinctive top-to-bottom
window. Each banknote in the new series will depict a different species
of Australian wattle and a native bird within a number of the elements.
On the $5 banknote, these are the Prickly Moses wattle and the Eastern
Spinebill.'
It will be released on 1 September for
National Wattle Day. National Wattle Day has a strong
republican connection.
However, the release of the design with a centrepiece containing a
decades-old picture of a now 90-year-old monarch jolted social media
into a frenzy. There were comments across social media ridiculing the
design.
Here's the new Aussie $5 note
Will Fowles, Australian Republican Movement National Committee member
observed:
'With the circulation of the new note likely to survive the
circulation of the monarch herself (the current iteration has been
around since 1992), is there not an opportunity to celebrate an
Australian on this prominent part of our national artistic real estate?'
Symbolism matters.
Australian Republican Movement National Chair,
Peter FitzSimons commented:
Who could believe that, in 2016, in the reign of Malcolm
Turnbull, our government could – on deciding that the $5 note needs a
revamp – look out across our brown and pleasant land, survey the 50
million Australians who've ever lived, and decide none of them have
achieved in their own right anything good enough to be honoured with
their image on the note. No, let's look further afield, all the way to
England, and go to the Queen of England, and honour her principally as a
matter of her royal birthright! And let's touch up the photo so she
looks 30 years younger than she is. And then release what appears to be
yellow witchetty grubs on the note, crawling up the page in front of
her.
I cringe. And I am happy to say, judging from the response, most
of Australia does too. It is nothing to do with Her Majesty – good luck
to her – and everything to do with us. At least our movement received a
surge in membership support because of it, and we will continue to grow.
This embarrassing farce must end.
Last year, we had the
overwhelmingly repudiated
awarding of a knighthood to the Queen’s consort, Prince Philip.
Unfortunately the design of the new fiver again looks backward rather
than forward.
But what the nation’s wags have most embraced about the new design is the opportunity to reimagine our fiver with someone,
anyone, apart from the Queen on it. Australian Republican Movement National Director Tim Mayfield
commented
on a missed opportunity. Surely, in 2016, the Reserve Bank of Australia
can think of a more appropriate person to put on our national currency
than another nation’s monarch. It is not as if there is a shortage of
good candidates to choose from.
The Fred Hollows Foundation has recently been running an online petition campaign to “Put Fred on the Fiver
”.
The idea received strong public support. The Fred Hollows Foundation
called on the RBA to replace the current picture of Parliament House
with Hollows’ face. The petition
read:
'During Fred’s lifetime, ($5) was the price of a sight-saving
intra-ocular lens. But strangely enough, the $5 note is the only
Australian bank note which doesn’t recognise a great Australian.'
The legendary ophthalmologist was named Australian of the Year in
1990 for his lifelong work restoring the sight of thousands of people.
Call for Australia to change the face of the $5 note
The Reserve Bank of Australia has also said that changes to the Australian banknotes have been done now to commemorate the 50
th anniversary year of conversion to decimal currency.
We’ve had
controversy
with "royal" money before when in 1963, the staunch royalist, Prime
Minister Menzies, recommended calling the new Australian decimal
currency "royals". In this instance, the Australian people were not
troubled, they were outraged.
The Australian dollar was first introduced on 14 February 1966 when
it replaced the Australian pound and introduced a decimal system to the
nation. Although investigated as an alternative as early as 1901, the
decimal currency system was initially introduced to Australia as an
election promise by then Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies in 1958.
There was much discussion about the name of the new currency, with
several specifically Australian names such as the "Kanga", "Austral",
"Merino", and "Dinkum" bandied around. A public naming competition
seeking suggestions with an Australian flavour added nearly 1000 names
to this list including such exotic suggestions as "Oz", "Boomer", "Roo",
"Kanga", "Emu", "Koala", "Digger", "Zac", "Kwid", and "Ming" (the
nickname of Prime Minister Menzies).
In June 1963, with no clear consensus having emerged on a name, the
government decided to name the new currency the 'Royal'. Treasurer
Harold Holt explained that the government saw this name as
“emphasising our link with the Crown” and as being
“a dignified word with a pleasing sound".
While the name "Royal" was settled upon initially, it proved extremely
unpopular with the Australian people. Just three months after announcing
the "Royal" decision the government conceded on 19 September 1963 that
the name of the currency unit would be the "Dollar". This decision won
quick and general public approval.
The official conversion to decimal currency took place on 14 February
1966. The jingle below became well known to many Australians in the
lead-up to the conversion date.
Decimal Change Over Song
In come the dollars and in come the cents
To replace the pounds and the shillings and the pence
Be prepared for change when the coins begin to mix
On the fourteenth of February 1966.
Chorus
:
Clink go the coins, clink, clink, clink
Change over day is closer than you think
Learn the value of the coins and the way that they appear
And things will be much smoother when the decimal point is here.
In come the dollars and in come the cents
To replace the pounds and the shillings and the pence
Be prepared folks when the coins begin to mix
On the fourteenth of February 1966.
Dollar Bill and Australians Keep The Wheels Of Industry Turning
Thankfully, the 1960s Menzies government finally saw sense in not
pushing the "Royal" onto the Australian people. It was a term not
recognised as remotely appropriate by Australians. Fifty years later the
latest poll shows that just over 50 per cent of Australians don't want a
Royal as our Head of State.
Perhaps we have just provided another chant for the Barmy Army during cricket matches. No longer is it just
"You're the convicts over there",
"God Save YOUR Queen", and "
Get your shit stars off our flag!" (a phrase which always reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld's comment:
"I love the Australian flag — Britain at night!"), there could now be
“Get our Queen off your fiver”.
Australian life has been undergoing processes of change for a long
time. Fifty years ago, decimal currency replaced Imperial pounds,
shillings and pence in Australian commerce. Four years after that, we
replaced Imperial measurement with the metric system. Surely the
Australian people deserve a say in matters of national identity both
great and small. We need to wrestle back our fiver and put our own
people on our currency rather than an English aristocrat who lives in a
castle in another country 9000 kilometres away. Removing the Queen from
the fiver should not be considered an act of disrespect
— she still occupies half of all our coins.
It’s high time we have an Australian as Head of State.
