An open letter to Tony Abbott from Australian republicans
The prime minister's sycophancy towards the British
monarch’s grand-descendants has become too much for many Australians. On
behalf of millions, the ARM national director has written Tony Abbott
an open letter. History editor Dr Glenn Davies reports.
THE PUBLIC REPUDIATION of Prime Minister Abbott’s knights and dames decision
showed that Australia has moved on from the old colonial way of
thinking. However, on 24 April 2014, Prime Minister Abbott stated in
Parliament
“Many decades, hence, when a currently unknowable Australian
prime minister welcomes your son, King George VII to this building, that
will be a sign of the stability and the continuity in the life of our
nation.”
In response, David Morris, national director of the Australian Republican Movement has written 'An Open Letter to Mr Abbott':
Mr Abbott,
When you were elected by the Australian people, you did not swear allegiance to Australia and its people, as had your predecessors in recent times, but you swore allegiance to the Queen.
When you welcomed Prince Harry to an important military
commemoration, you did not make the day all about honouring our
military, but you said ‘we all feel monarchist today.’
When great Australians have been honoured for decades with a meritocratic Australian honours system, you – to great ridicule – brought back colonial titles, knights and dames.
And when Australians warmly welcomed visiting British Royals,
treated by the media as global celebrities, you dragged an innocent baby
into your personal crusade to take us back to colonial thinking. Back
to a time when the infant Australian nation was but a realm of an
Empire.
Mr Abbott, if the baby visiting us this week with his parents
becomes King George VII, it may well be a sign of the stability and the
continuity in the life of the British nation.
But you are Prime Minister of the Australian nation.
In Australia, the stability and the continuity in the life of our
nation comes from our people, not from people who live on the other
side of the world.
It is the Australian people who have built the world’s greatest
nation, one of the most deeply democratic, egalitarian and successful
places in which to live.
It is the Australian people to whom an Australian prime minister should swear his allegiance.
Tony Abbott's views on Australian monarchy
It is the Australian people who should be sovereign and it should
be from the Australian people that we choose our next head of state.
Every Australian baby should have an equal opportunity to aspire to be our head of state.
The history of the Australian nation is a stable and continuous road to national confidence, unity and independence.
Our nation might not always live up to our ideals, but we deeply
believe in equal opportunity, being judged on merit and hard work; we
believe in fairness and multiculturalism.
We are not a society that believes one person should be born to
rule over everyone else based on their race, religion, place of birth,
privileged family and gender. No, we are not all monarchists, Mr Abbott.
We know not everyone agrees. Some want to take us back the past
when we had a colonial mentality, when we did not back ourselves.
Yes, monarchists fought against Australia having our own national
anthem, just as they fought against ending appeals to the Privy
Council. But our nation is so much better because the monarchists
failed.
Yes, Mr Abbott, monarchists are on the offensive again, co-opting
global celebrities to their cause, but our nation will be so much
better when we stop dragging innocent foreigners into our domestic
debates.
The global celebrities you drag into your cause cannot defend
themselves, they cannot enter the debate because they cannot have a
view. This is our nation, not theirs.
Our relationship with their nation will be much more mature when we back our own, first and foremost.
Australians warmly welcome tourists.
Well, maybe not quite that warmly... (Image via Global Post)
Yes, the Australian people will welcome a future visit from King
George VII of England to our country, that will be a sign of close
friendship.
And we will do so as a free nation with dignity and self-respect when it is an Australian head of state who leads that welcome.
ARM nation director David Morris is right, of course.
The Royals represent Britain, but cannot represent us or unite us as Australians.
We have our own identity as Australians.
Australians believe in freedom and equal opportunity, not that some are born to rule over others.
Australia today is one of the world’s great nations, with a bright
future that must be 100 per cent in the hands of the Australian people.
We are ready to move on from our colonial past and become a fully
independent nation with fully Australian national institutions,
including our own Head of State.
So amongst the media frenzy about visiting British celebrities, don’t
mistake goodwill for the cringe of earlier decades. We can, of course,
have affection for Britain and its celebrity Royals — but affection does
not mean allegiance.
The British Royals are welcome to visit as representatives of
Britain, however we look forward to the day when the British people and
their Royal Family themselves welcome a visit from Australia's Head of
State.
Dr Glenn Davies is Australian Republican Movement's Queensland branch convenor. Find out more about an Australian republic at ouridentity.org.au.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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