Aussies are still girt by monarchy

So, KCIII has finally turned up. King Charles III has finally undertaken the Australian leg of his victory lap of the Commonwealth. Surely, it’s time for an Australian head of state to be not only one of us but also resident and present.

It’s been over two years since the then Prince Charles stepped into the top job. This all changes between 18^th and 26^th October 2024 and marks the first time Australians have had a royal audience with their own king.

After over ten years, four governors-general and two monarchs, a sitting Australian Head of State is headed Down Under!

Our absentee King’s 17,000km journey from the other side of the world will see Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla grace us with the presence of the British monarch on Australian soil for the first time as our Head of State (although the grace will be presented only in Sydney and Canberra).

Next Monday, King Charles III will be greeted in Canberra by the prime minister, but not a single state leader who have all declined their invitations, citing “other commitments” ranging from election campaigns to cabinet meetings.

 It was less than two weeks ago that Queensland had its second King’s Birthday Public Holiday, even though KCIII’s actual birthday is 19 November. Queenslanders took the day off work; not in recognition of their hard work, but to recognise the British Monarch who will most likely be sleeping through our public holiday.

The King’s Birthday Public Holiday doesn’t remind us of anything good about our country. At worst, it tells us Australia’s head of state gets the job by inheritance.

You would’ve thought it would have been better if the British monarch had turned up for his own birthday weekend? I suppose though it would have been awkward: public holiday in Queensland only at this time of year (with WA a week before) and Queensland not even on the visiting schedule. Oops.

The lack of any public activity around the King’s Birthday Public Holiday shows also how the concept of monarchy is out-of-step with contemporary Australia. 

Since his birth as Prince Charles, KCIII has known he would take over the top job. Then one morning in 2022, Australians simply woke up to hear news from Britain that has changed our country for decades to come.

Australians did not choose King Charles III as our Head of State. It is a disgraceful fact that without constitutional change, the citizens of Australia will never be consulted on our head of state.

It’s time for an Australian to be our head of state and do the job full-time, rather than working from home at Windsor Castle where they can’t even be bothered Zooming into the Australian office at least once a week.

We are a unique multicultural country and we need someone who understands how to embody us, to be the guardian of our Constitution, to be a unifying symbol at home and someone we are proud to see representing us abroad. They should be elected on merit, not gifted the position by birthright. They should have the skills and work experience to do the job.

The person should be one of us, responsible and accountable to us, and unwaveringly loyal to us and only us.

We have our own identity as Australians. The Royals represent Britain, but cannot represent us or unite us as Australians. Australians believe in freedom and equal opportunity, not that some are born to rule over others.

We come from all walks of life, from all corners of the globe and this ancient land. Our shared commitment to our common future is what binds us together. Standing against this is the elevation of Charles III.

I’ve argued previously, there is no place for princes and kings in modern Australia. The public repudiation of previous Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s knights and dames decision showed that Australia has moved on from the old colonial way of thinking.

We can have respect and affection for Britain and its celebrity royals but still question why we do not have our own head of state. The royals are welcome to visit as representatives of Britain, but I look forward to when the British people and their royal family will welcome a visit by the first Australian head of state.

In the words of Sammy J:

So to our King, we say g’day and we praise his DNA, his ever-loyal subjects across the sea.

We might have golden soil and a bit of wealth for toil, but us Aussies are still girt by monarchy.

For us in Australia, royalty only ever visits us from somewhere else, from across the seas. It’s not something that lives with us. Royalty comes and royalty goes, but it is never a part of us.

Thanks Charles, but we’ve got it from here.

Toodle pip.

14 years of independent journalism: Happy Birthday Independent Australia!

Yesterday was Independent Australia's 14th birthday. The anniversary of the establishment of IA on 24 June 2010 comes a few days after the winter solstice, a time of reflection at a quiet time of the year. However, 14 years ago the birth of Independent Australia certainly didn’t happen during a time of political quiet.

I can remember 14 years ago when the first article was published — the day after the “night of long knives” when Julia Gillard rolled Kevin Rudd for the prime ministership.

At the same time Rudd was being deposed, Independent Australia emerged as an independent Australian voice.

As such, it is a relief that in a volatile and changing online media landscape, Independent Australia has not only managed to stay afloat but has become a strong alternate voice to the mainstream media.

Since those first days, IA founded by former Australian Republic Movement vice chair David Donovan, has become the premier republican voice in Australia — the modern-day version of The Bulletin in its heyday of the 1880s and 1890s.

Australia has a long tradition of independent, republican journalism. This tradition was first established in newspapers such as the People’s Advocate and the Empire of the 1840s and 1850s, and supported by The Age in the 1870s and 1880s.

This prevalent theme in publications continued into the 1890s, such as in the Newcastle Radical, the Wagga Hummer, the Cairns Advocate, the Melbourne Tocsin, the Hobart Clipper and John Norton’s Truth. But it was in the pages of The Bulletin of the 1880s and 1890s that the flowering of republican ideals can mostly noticeably be seen to emerge.

Over the past 14 years, the task I have has taken on with Independent Australia is to document some of our shared republican history. For this reporter, this historical journey had begun much earlier with a 1988 James Cook University history honours thesis, The Australian Republican: a Charters Towers based radical journal, 1890-1891.

Coincidentally, the first edition of the Australian Republican was published on 21 June 1890 — 125 years, almost to the day, before Independent Australia.

But there is still a great deal more to document. Australia’s republican past has a rich and deep seam. It is important to remember that our future is inextricably linked to our shared past.

It has been a long time since Australia has had such a strong republican voice. Australia’s republican voice has been lost for a long time.

There have certainly been many writers, artists, academics, and politicians who have actively advocated for an Australian republic over the past century — however, they have not had a home where they can all shelter under the same roof.

IA has become that space — a republican space, a republican civic space where republicans and others can debate the issues that are important to our political and civic future.

Thanks to David Donovan and all the contributors to IA, the republican tribe can look around and see who they are.

So, Happy Birthday Independent Australia and here’s to a long, independent life — and remember, every tribe needs a home.

Crisis Averted

 

Remembering the 1999 Republic Referendum

November is always a time of remembering. It is when you reflect upon the year, do annual reviews, weigh up what’s been achieved and what hasn’t, and set targets and goals for the coming year. However, it is a time for remembering much larger events as well.

Remembrance Day has set the tone for November as a time to reflect and remember each year on 11 November since 1919, the Armistice of the Great War.

The First World War was in its time the most destructive conflict yet experienced by humanity. When it began in August 1914, few imagined the course that it would take, or foresaw its terrible toll. From a population of just under 5 million, more than 400,000 Australians enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force – the AIF, the force that Australia sent to the war – and more than 330,000 served overseas. For most this meant Gallipoli, the Middle East or the war’s main theatre: the Western Front in France and Belgium.

More than 60,000 Australians lost their lives, a devastating toll for a small country. Yet they were a relative few. Around the world some 10 million military personnel died in what was then called the Great War.

Families and communities everywhere were affected by the enormous loss. When an armistice ended the fighting on 11 November 1918, celebrations in the victorious nations were tempered by grief and sorrow.

In Britain and the countries of her empire, the day’s anniversary became known as Armistice Day. In 1919 and in every year since at 11 am on 11 November, people have paused to remember the dead. So great had been the loss of life, so devastating had been the destruction, that people hoped, even imagined, that the Great War would be the last war, ‘the war to end war’. But it was not to be.

Two decades after the First World War ended, the world was plunged into a second global conflict. No longer could Armistice Day remain a day only to remember the dead of the First World War. After the Second World War ended in 1945, 11 November became known as Remembrance Day. The day’s sombre associations have never changed. When we pause at 11 am on 11 November, we reflect on the price that Australia and countries around the world have paid through more than a century of war and conflict that followed the First World War.

When we pause at 11 am on 11 November each year, we reflect on the price that Australia and countries around the world have paid through more than a century of war and conflict that followed the First World War.

As famously captured in Laurence Binyon's poem 'For the Fallen':

'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.'

However, there were annual events before the establishment of Remembrance Day that tapped into this reflective time of year.

The Feast of Saints is held at the beginning of November and is now widely observed across the world to remember those recognised as today’s saints — known or unknown, mighty or lowly.

This is followed on 2 November by All Souls’ Day, an official holiday in the Catholic ecclesiastical calendar. Also known as The Commemoration of all The Faithful Departed and the Day of the Dead, All Souls’ Day is generally a day of remembrance when prayers are said for the souls of those who have passed on. Around the world, All Souls’ Day often involves visiting cemeteries where loved ones are buried and tending to their graves. Attending a mass or church service, praying and eating particular foods are all part of these observations.

This is followed on 5 November with Guy Fawkes Night, which remembers the survival of James I from Guy Fawkes’ assassination plot when he attempted to blow up the House of Lords in 1605.

Many will know this English folk verse, circa 1870:

Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

In an earlier Australia, we held "bonfire night", or cracker night, to mark the anniversary of the failure of the Gunpowder Plot.

# # #

November is also Australia’s ‘republic season’. I have written before about how November is a time of year full of republican symbolism, as well as Australian republic-remembering. It is a time when Australian Republic Movement has always elected its national leaders since the foundation of the movement in 1991.

It was a year ago that human rights and anti-racism activist, former Socceroo Craig Foster AM and Nova Peris, Aboriginal Australian athlete and former Senator, were elected co-National Chairs to lead the Australian Republic Movement after the resignation of Peter FitzSimons, one of our foremost writers of Australian history who has captured pivotal moments that have shaped our national identity.

Peter FitzSimons joined a line of impressive ARM leaders. The founding chairman of ARM (1991-1993) was author Tom Keneally. Following, were: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (1993-2000); barrister Greg Barns (2000-2002); Professor John Warhurst (2002-2005); businessman and future federal politician Ted O’Brien (2005 to 2007); Major-General Mike Keating (2007 to 2012); former Premier of Western Australia Geoff Gallop (2012-2015), author and journalist Peter FitzSimons (2015-2022), and finally, Craig Foster and Nova Peris (2022-).

In Australia, the November republic season includes the anniversary of the 6 November 1999 Australian republic referendum, the 3 November 1997 anniversary of the voluntary postal election for the 1998 Constitutional Convention, as well as the anniversary of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s Dismissal on 11 November 1975 by Governor-General of the day John Kerr. The Dismissal of Whitlam in 1975 arguably remains the most dramatic event in Australia’s political history and began the modern republic movement.

Recently there have been claims the British monarch was involved in Australia’s 1975 constitutional crisis. Important Book 'The Palace Letters: The Queen, the Governor-General and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam' is the ground-breaking result of historian Professor Jenny Hocking’s fight to expose secret letters between the Queen and Australian Governor-General John Kerr during the Dismissal of Gough Whitlam.

In this gripping and true court drama, Professor Jenny Hocking describes her years-long legal battle to uncover letters between Queen Elizabeth II and Sir John Kerr in which the two discussed the 1975 Dismissal of the Whitlam Government. Hocking also provides a piercing analysis of both the extreme efforts made to stop her and what the letters themselves revealed. The Palace Letters show it is absurd how an Australian governor-general reports to Buckingham Palace in a manner not much different from that of a 19th-century colonial governor. Australia’s head of state should be one of us.

# # #

In early November 2015, the first significant policy change for the new Turnbull Government was to call it a ‘knight’ on titles. The formal removal by then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull of one of previous Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s most unpopular ‘captain’s picks’, resolved a national embarrassment. Turnbull confirmed there would be no more anachronistic Australian knights and dames. Australia’s ‘knightmare’ was finally over. In abolishing the titles of knight and dame from the Order of Australia awards, Turnbull helped the growth of the movement for an Australian republic.

Early November also sees the anniversaries of the 2014 memorial for Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (1971-1975), as well as the 12 November eulogy delivered for Professor George Winterton.

Winterton was a first-rank constitutional scholar and pioneer of the modern republic debate. He spent most of his career at the University of New South Wales, was a prominent republic scholar and writer, a member of the Republic Advisory Committee in the mid-1990s and a key delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention that crafted the minimalist republic model rejected in the 1999 Australian republic referendum. More than anyone else, he produced the model that went to the people in that referendum.

On 6 November 1999, the then national chairperson of the Australian Republic Movement, Malcolm Turnbull pinned the 1999 referendum’s defeat squarely on the Prime Minister, John Howard, when he said:

“History will remember him for one thing. He was the Prime Minister who broke the nation’s heart.”

November is also a time when Royal visits usually happen.  

This latest royal visit is a bookend also to the first royal visit, which occurred over five hot months from 1867 to 1868. This was undertaken by Queen Victoria’s second son Prince Alfred, a Royal Navy captain on a round-the-world voyage on board the HMS Galatea. Stops were made at Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. He first landed at Glenelg, in South Australia, on 31 October 1868. As the first member of the British royal family to visit the Australian colonies, he was received with much enthusiasm. During his stay of nearly five months, Alfred visited Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Tasmania.

At a meeting on 20 January 1868 to elect three trustees from the subscribers to the fund for the erection of the first Grammar School in Brisbane, there was a discussion on the probability of Prince Alfred who was about to visit the colony to lay the foundation stone.

The Brisbane Courier on 21 January 1868 stated that

'... as almost a necessary consequence, the school would be in some way connected with his Royal Highness by name. As, however, the number of institutions which either now did or promised to bear the name of Prince Alfred, or Duke of Edinburgh, in the other colonies, had become almost beyond all count, he would suggest that they had better confine themselves out here to some such name as the ‘Prince’s School’, or ‘Queen’s School … [another] said he believed according to the Grammar Schools Act they were bound to call the school the "Brisbane Grammar School".'

During his visit to Brisbane, Prince Alfred laid the Brisbane Grammar School Foundation Stone on 29 February 1868, however the people of Brisbane r
efused to yield to the pressure around all the colonies to name all institutions after the visiting royal. Instead of naming the school after him, the event was commemorated in the present School with his coat-of-arms included in the northern stained glass window of the Great Hall. The fact that he wasn’t liked much helped the burghers of Brisbane maintain their ‘republican’ stance.

In November 2023 there doesn’t appear to be any Royal visits on the horizon. We certainly seem to be being taken for granted. King Charles III appears to still be avoiding a victory lap of the Commonwealth.

Australians need a head of state of their own — someone who can lead the dignified part of their national life away from the day-to-day screaming match of Federal Parliament and Question Time.

So, remember, remember, Australia’s republican November!

King Charles III avoids victory lap of the Commonwealth

Today is the first time Queenslanders have had a public holiday to celebrate the birthday of King Charles III and yet there has been no victory lap yet of the Commonwealth. This show the growing distance between the British monarch and the people of Australia. 

Queenslanders took the day off work today; not in recognition of their hard work, but to recognise the British Monarch who will most likely be sleeping through the public holiday.

The first King’s Birthday public holiday in Queensland, which now commemorates King Charles III’s birthday on 19 November, is another demonstration of our denial of choice. Since his birth, Prince Charles has known he would take over the top job. Then one morning last year, Australians simply woke up to hear news from Britain that has changed our country for decades to come. Australians did not choose King Charles III as our Head of State. It is a disgraceful fact that without constitutional change, the citizens of Australia will never be consulted on our head of state.

Australian love their public holidays, even if the reason for the occasion is a little vague. For goodness sake we even have a public holiday in Melbourne for a horse race and in Brisbane for an agricultural show. Nevertheless, the purpose of the King’s Birthday public holiday is the vaguest of them all. The King’s Birthday public holiday doesn’t remind us of anything good about our country. At worst, it tells us Australia’s head of state gets the job by inheritance. The lack of any public activity around the King’s Birthday public holiday shows how the concept of monarchy is out-of-step with contemporary Australia. 

It’s time for an Australian to be our Head of State to be not only one of us but also willing to turn up.

In fact, since King Charles III became Australian Head of State he is yet to grace any of the Commonwealth nations which still call him their King with his presence.

National Director and CEO Isaac Jeffrey said:

“King Charles III is King of Australia by birthright and he has held that lofty position for over a year now, yet our King hasn’t made the trip to visit us. In fact, he hasn’t been to any of the Commonwealth nations which still call him their King and Head of State. He’s visited Germany, Romania and, within the last few days, he sipped champagne in France, but he hasn’t found time for us.

Prior to becoming our King, then Prince Charles, only visited Australia 16 times. He’s fast approaching his 75th birthday. He’s had decades to travel down under to get an idea of who we are as a people and to truly understand who we are a nation. He’s only managed around one visit every five years. Some of these were extended visits, such as his days at Geelong Grammar on exchange as a schoolboy, while others like the last visit in 2018 were for only a few days – yet we still call him King of Australia.”

It beggars the question, does the monarchy take us for granted?

It’s time for an Australian to be our Head of State and do the job full-time, rather than working from home at Windsor Castle where they can’t even be bothered Zooming into the office at least once a week.

We are a unique multicultural country and we need someone who understands how to embody us, to be the guardian of our Constitution, to be a unifying symbol at home and someone we are proud to see representing us abroad. They should be elected on merit, not gifted the position by birthright. They should have the skills and work experience to do the job. The person should be one of us, responsible and accountable to us, and unwaveringly loyal to us and only us.

And, they should be willing to turn up.

In Britain, the King’s Birthday is celebrated on the first Saturday in June. In New Zealand, it’s the first Monday in June and in Canada, it’s in the middle of May. The Canadian celebration is called “Victoria Day” because it was created to honour Queen Victoria. However, over the years the Canadian holiday has changed to include the reigning sovereign’s birthday as well.

The idea of two birthday celebrations was introduced 250 years ago. Earl Charles Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, stated former Queen Elizabeth II received a second multiday celebration now, thanks to historical tradition.

As Spencer said, George II was

“...born in the depths of winter and they decided they couldn't celebrate his birthday in the winter every year because there's all sorts of pageantry.”

So, George decided he'd have a second birthday and the idea stuck.

“Anyone who's been King or Queen of England since has a summer birthday, so that we have a hope of some sunshine.”

Since 1748, the British monarch's official birthday has been marked by the parade known as Trooping the Colour — usually held on the king or queen's actual birthday. But Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910, was born in November. Yet he celebrated his birthday officially in May or June because there was less chance of it being cold and drizzly during the outdoor event.

The British monarch’s official birthday celebrations (as opposed to the actual birth date) began in Australia in 1912. The monarch after Edward VII – King George V – helpfully had a birthday on 3 June. Queen Elizabeth II’s father, George VI, whose birthday was unhelpfully in December, reintroduced the tradition of an official birthday by having his official birthday on the second Thursday of June. Elizabeth II continued with this tradition. However, in 1959, after several years on the throne, she changed it to the second Saturday in June for convenience.

And yet it has always seemed absurd that Australians acknowledged the birthday of former Queen Elizabeth II at a completely different time to her actual birthday, and at different times in different states. Around Australia in 2023, the King’s Birthday public holiday continues the tradition set by the Windsor line holding the official birthday in Australia on the second Monday in June — except in WA on Monday 25 September and in Queensland on Monday 2 October.

We have our own identity as Australians. The Royals represent Britain, but cannot represent us or unite us as Australians. Australians believe in freedom and equal opportunity, not that some are born to rule over others.

We come from all walks of life, from all corners of the globe and this ancient land. Our shared commitment to our common future is what binds us together. Standing against this is the elevation of Charles III.

We can have respect and affection for Britain and its celebrity royals but still question why we do not have our own Head of State. The royals are welcome to visit as representatives of Britain, but I look forward to when the British people and their royal family will welcome a visit by the first Australian head of state.

In the words of Sammy J,

So to our King, we say g’day, and we praise his DNA, his ever loyal subjects across the sea.

We might have golden soil and a bit of wealth for toil, but us Aussies are still girt by monarchy.

 

 

35 golden years celebrating National Wattle Day

 

September 1 marks 35^th anniversary of Golden Wattle as Australia’s national floral emblem, as well as the 30^th anniversary of the Australian Republic Movement giving its support to National Wattle Day celebrations throughout Australia.

The first day of September has many names. Some welcome it as spring’s dawn, a time to celebrate nature’s renewal. For others, it is National Wattle Day — a time when the smells of spring are in the air as well as Australia's vivid gold blossom,

In 2023 we mark the 35^th anniversary of the proclamation of golden wattle as Australia’s national floral emblem.

In Australia, the wattle is the largest genus of flowering plants. In Australia, you could plant two or three different wattles for every day of the year and still have plenty left over, for Australia has more acacia species than the year has days. These acacias are extremely diverse and found in habitats from rainforest to arid lands.

A sprig of Australia's national floral emblem, the golden wattle – Acacia pycnantha – is traditionally worn on the first day of spring. The green and gold of wattle leaves and blossoms were declared our national colours in 1984; in 1988, the wattle was adopted as the official national flower; and National Wattle Day was formally declared as an official National Day on 1 September 1992.

Australians may have made a home for themselves among the gum trees, but it is the wattle
tree that has found its way into Australian republican symbolism. In 1993, the Australian Republic Movement gave its support to Wattle Day celebrations being held throughout Australia on 1 September. Wattle captures something crucial to the success of the republic — feeling for country. It is a unifying symbol.

Wattle Day has been celebrated annually on the first day of spring since 1910. Over the next few years there was a push to extend Wattle Day celebrations across the country. However, the first known use of wattle as a meaningful emblem in the Australian colonies was in Hobart Town in 1838, when a resident suggested wearing a sprig of wattle to celebrate the golden jubilee of the landing at Sydney Cove. In this seemingly small gesture lay a suggestion of an independent Australia.

Wattle is a broad and inclusive symbol of an egalitarian, classless, free citizenry. It grows in all parts of Australia, differing varieties flowering throughout the year. This democracy of wattles – the fact that they grow in all states – was the overpowering reason why the wattle and not the waratah was chosen as the floral emblem in the early 20^th Century.

Wattle celebrations first arose as occasions when earlier generations of Australians stood up
and said: “I am from this land. This place is home.”

It is a symbol that comes directly from our land. Wattle is Australian and represents us all. Like the Southern Cross, the appeal of wattle is not first and foremost to the idea of nation — but to the idea of place.

Wattle branches have been on Australia’s coat of arms since 1912 and golden wattle is Australia’s national floral emblem. Australian athletes wear wattle-inspired green and gold uniforms and those honoured with an Order of Australia receive awards with an insignia designed around the wattle flower. At citizenship ceremonies, wattle is worn to signify new beginnings.

Early pioneers and World War I diggers were buried with a customary sprig of wattle. During the First World War, wattle sprigs and badges were sold to raise money for the war effort and organisations such as the Red Cross. Later, wattle was worn to commemorate Australians who lost their lives while serving overseas.

By the Second World War wattle was no longer being widely used as a symbol of Australia and Wattle Day all but disappeared. Calls to make wattle a national floral emblem didn’t re-enter the national consciousness until the 1980s.

Then Governor-General Sir William Deane took wattle blossoms to Switzerland to commemorate young Australians who died there. Prime Minister John Howard also wore sprigs of wattle at ceremonies after the Bali bombings.

Terry Fewtrell, President of the Wattle Day Association, said in a 2014 Australia Day speech that:

“...wattle has journeyed with us in kitbags, pockets and letters to places that become synonymous with our shared story; be they Gallipoli, Kokoda or Swiss canyons."

In 2017, Terry Fewtrell, proposed in the Sydney Morning Herald that:

We could link National Wattle Day, with Australia Day as joint days on which we celebrate Australia, this land, its waters and environment, its people and our nation. National Wattle Day would not compete with Australia Day, rather it would complete Australia Day. It would do what Wattle has always done — unite us.

Perhaps we could also see its blossoms as a metaphor for the land waving its flag to remind us to care properly for it. It is precisely wattle’s long presence in and deep association with the land that sets it apart as a national symbol and endows it with added meaning.

Wattle touches all levels of society.

Let’s all take a moment this National Wattle Day and reflect on the wattle flower which symbolises an egalitarian, classless, free citizenry.

So, when the blaze of wattle lights up the Australian landscape each year, let’s all remember that the wattle is a symbol of our land that unites us all.