This Sunday marks 70 years since the Queen acceded to the throne on the death of her father, King George VI. Predictably, the Australian Republic Movement has marked the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with another proposal for an Australian republic.
The latest model – a hybrid direct election from up to 11 candidates selected via nominations from all levels of government – would likely pitch a future Australian president against a prime minister, politicising our head of state. Even the standard bearers of Australian republicanism, Paul Keating and Malcolm Turnbull, don’t see this model succeeding.
While our Westminster system of government isn’t perfect, it’s hard to see the ARM’s model rivalling the stability and strength the Queen has given us during the past 70 years.
Since 1952, the Queen’s leadership has spanned that of 15 Australian prime ministers and 14 British prime ministers. The Queen remains a popular and highly respected figure in Australia and abroad.
According to a YouGov poll in December last year, the Queen is the third most admired woman in the world (behind Michelle Obama and Angelina Jolie). Despite the ARM’s best efforts, only 36 per cent of respondents in a recent poll of Australians said they would support a republic (with 38 per cent unsure). This popularity ensures there is no prospect of another referendum while the Queen is alive. Republicans wouldn’t dare. Of course, when Prince Charles becomes king that may be another matter.
What is it about the Queen that commands such respect? Stability is one thing; that’s a given in some respects as she’s not elected. But it’s worth considering that the popularity of republicanism in Australia has never matched the ambitions of its advocates. This is down to the Queen, whose commitment to the Crown makes her unrivalled among our leaders. She sees her job as important to the stability of the 15 countries over which she reigns. The institution of the monarchy gives those societies a stability that a directly elected presidential system cannot.
For the monarchy to survive, the way the Queen conducts herself is vital. Whatever the Queen’s private tribulations (and there have been a few), she has put her commitment to the Crown above them. It can’t have been easy to strip her son Prince Andrew and grandson Prince Harry of their titles; or, because of Covid-19 restrictions, to sit alone in St George’s Chapel mourning the death of Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years, while the revellers at Downing Street partied hard.
The Queen’s commitment to her subjects followed the example set by her parents during World War II. Unlike many British aristocrats, George VI and his wife, Queen Elizabeth, stayed in London during the Blitz, visiting bombed-out civilians and injured members of the armed services. When Buckingham Palace was bombed, the Queen Mother said she was glad it had been bombed because she wanted to look the East End in the face.
The Queen’s sense of duty was evident even before she acceded to the throne. Despite her father’s serious illness, she and her husband proceeded with a long tour with plans to visit Australia. The visit was cut short in Kenya when she received the news of her father’s death.
In Australia, federal MPs were gathered in Canberra for an unusually early February sitting of parliament as external affairs minister Richard Casey was attempting to hurry through the passage of the Pacific pact (or ANZUS Treaty) and the Japanese peace treaty before the royal tour began.
Word first arrived via the press gallery that the king had died. A cabinet meeting was interrupted so prime minister Robert Menzies could be given the news.
Casey was in the middle of his second reading speech for the passage of the Japanese peace treaty and was oblivious to the reason the press gallery was filling up in anticipation of an announcement. Once Casey had finished, Menzies adjourned proceedings in the House of Representatives to await official confirmation of the news. Minutes later the Australian high commission in London confirmed the king’s death and Menzies stood on the floor of parliament to announce with some emotion the king’s death.
The apogee of the Queen’s popularity was surely the occasion of her first royal visit in 1954. The 27-year-old Queen spent 58 days travelling around Australia, visiting 57 towns. More than a million people turned out to watch her arrival at Farm Cove in Sydney on February 3, out of a population of 1.8 million. By the end of the visit, 75 per cent of Australians had seen the Queen at least once during the tour. It was a visit to rival any Beatlemania.
Reflecting on the importance of the monarchy at the time, Menzies observed the “profound and passionate feelings of loyalty and devotion” to the Queen among Australians were “the very cement of the whole social structure”. Popular monarchism may have come down a notch since then, but the Queen remains a highly respected leader and a powerful symbol of stability in a world where that is sadly rare and much-needed.
Georgina Downer is chief executive of the Robert Menzies Institute.
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