I was out and about over the weekend and what I saw was remarkable.
What I saw was nothing.
Nope. Not a single person waving the flag, celebrating the queen, toasting our head of state.
Apparently she had a jamboree or something, which is probably royal speak for the old crone having stuck around far too long. I even saw her and the other inbred parasites on the telly, looking just as smug, privileged and distanced from reality as they always do.
Far too long … like the very existence of Australia’s pointless constitutional link to Britain.
Any way you think about it, hereditary monarchies are totally absurd. A person is the ruler of a country not because of any talent they possess, any training, any qualifications, any valid process of assessing their any suitability but just because they were born into a particular family.
And as Monty Python’s famous peasant wailed from the mud in The Holy Grail, “supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses (not from some farcical aquatic ceremony”!).
I would argue that the British monarch being the head of state of the Commonwealth of Australia has no mandate. Remember that at the republic referendum of 1999 the question asked was whether we wanted to accept John Howard’s model for choosing a President, not solely on the broader question of becoming a republic.
The actual question was: To alter the Constitution to establish the Commonwealth of Australia as a republic with the Queen and Governor-General being replaced by a President appointed by a two-thirds majority of the members of the Commonwealth Parliament.
It was therefore – importantly in my view – not a question about whether we were happy with the current system. No mandate.
If the good citizens of our country can’t even be bothered to light a cracker for old Lizzie’s bludgerversary or whatever it was, it’s a dead giveaway that our constitutional arrangements are a sad relic desperately in need of modernising.
I recall during the republic ‘debate’ there was heard the refrain of ‘if it aint broke don’t fix it’. I argued then, and still do, that our system is broken.
Australian politics is extremely broken. Find me one sane and thoughtful person who thinks it isn’t.
We need to make changes, and extirpating the lingering colonial stench would be a great start, perhaps giving us confidence to make other major improvements to our constitution. I am not an ‘originalist’ when it comes to the constitution. It’s an 1890’s document, written by people long dead who could not possibly have conceived of our society as it is today.
An English queen, or king if it comes to it, should not be the sovereign of what in all other respects is an independent country. Have we no dignity? No belief in ourselves? No gumption to stand up to the brutal colonisers of our land and say enough is enough?
I fear we can not make much progress towards reconciliation with the Indigenous people of our land unless we clear the cupboard of silly imperial skeletons.
We are not British, we are Australian.
I was formerly a member of the Australian Republican Movement. I am disappointed with their current ‘wait and see’ approach, and am no longer a paid-up supporter.
Becoming a republic should be on our terms. We decide how and when.
So if the ARM has gone quiet and ridding us of our distant overlord in the silly hat, I’m going to take matters into my own hands. From this day on I will now cross out the queen on any coins that pass through my possession.
This is probably some kind of crime, so if the fuzz want to bust me for being a small change republican and turn me into some kind of martyr, go ahead.
The oath of allegiance sworn by parliamentarians is:
I, A.B., do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Her heirs and successors according to law.
I hereby solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I am unfaithful to and bear no true allegiance to the queen of a foreign country, whatever she calls herself.
My loyalty is solely to Australia.
Alan Whykes is Chief Editor of Tasmanian Times, and voted Yes in the 1999 republic referendum.
