The Queen is dead. Long live the King. I rise to humbly offer my sincere condolences and the condolences of the electors of Kew to His Majesty the King of Australia and the royal family on the death of our late sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, of blessed and glorious memory. The loyalty that Her late Majesty enjoyed from Australia, the United Kingdom and other parts of the Commonwealth will pass to His Majesty. I wish to make my contribution regarding the constitutional significance of the events of recent days and why the institution of our constitutional monarchy and our Crown are so important for the preservation of our traditions, our rights and our democracy.
I have lived all my life, as Churchill spoke of 70 years ago, in the tranquil glories of the second Elizabethan age. The Hanoverian Protestant succession has been kept safe for 70 years by the extraordinary work ethic, duty and judgement of Her late Majesty. That has rightly passed to King Charles III, as it was the will of Parliament and by extension the will of the people of the United Kingdom and the 14 realms where His Majesty is now sovereign that he should now lawfully accede to the throne.
In 1992, whilst opening the second session of the 50th Parliament of New South Wales, the late Queen told the joint sitting:
This is my second opportunity to address this Parliament—a Parliament which I described on the previous occasion, in 1954, as the Mother Parliament of Australia. It is interesting to reflect that that was the first time on which the Sovereign had opened a Session of an Australian Parliament.
She went on to say:
Events around the world in recent years—
remembering this was 1992—
have shown the strength of people’s desire for the freedom to shape their own futures. We have all been witnesses to remarkable change as the people of many nations, with immense courage and determination, have rejected authoritarian rule and embraced democracy.
The best guardian of freedom is democracy, and this Parliament, like all other Parliaments in Australia, stands in the proud tradition of democratic government. Each one of you, therefore, carries the heavy responsibility of representing the aspirations of your fellow Australians and of guarding their freedom.
When the late Queen opened the Commonwealth Parliament for the first time she said this:
The first section of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia provides that the legislative power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in “a Federal Parliament, which shall consist of the Queen, a Senate, and a House of Representatives”.
It is therefore a joy for me, to-day, to address you not as a Queen from far away, but as your Queen and a part of your Parliament. In a real sense, you are here as my colleagues, friends, and advisers.
In 1974, on the advice of the Whitlam government, Her late Majesty, when opening the federal Parliament, told the Senate chamber:
… I am particularly pleased that by opening this Australian Parliament I am able to perform personally an important constitutional duty as Queen of Australia.
Her late Majesty was not just a monarch living in London; she was one of us. This profoundly important constitutional process we have witnessed and participated in as Victorian MPs today predates our state’s constitution by 300 years. The House of Commons, during the dark days of January 1649, asserted its right:
The Commons of England, in Parliament assembled, do Declare, That the People are, under God, the Original of all just Power: And do also Declare, that the Commons of England, in Parliament assembled, being chosen by, and representing the People, have the Supreme Power in this Nation.
Why do I reflect upon that statement from the House of Commons at the end of the civil war? Because that comment, that statement, the glorious revolution, the Bill of Rights, the act of settlement and the recent Succession to The Crown Act 2013, as well as our constitutions, both state and federal, are the basis of our constitutional monarchy, our parliamentary democracy, the rule of law and this, our magnificent legal and cultural inheritance from England, which has guaranteed our peace and prosperity.
Sovereignty of at least the east coast of this continent was claimed for His Majesty’s great, great, great, great, great-uncle, King George III, in 1770. Sovereignty has clearly never been ceded, as it has been reaffirmed on this continent by the executive councils of every state of the Commonwealth and the federal government in days past, all serving by and with the confidence of the lower houses of their parliaments and by extension the people—all Australians across our Commonwealth.
Our state of Victoria was named after His Majesty’s great, great, great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. Our capital, Melbourne, is named after her favourite prime minister, William Lamb, the second Viscount Melbourne. In the 171 years since the act for the better government of Her Majesty’s Australian colonies came into effect, which formally established the colony of Victoria by separating it from the Port Phillip district of the colony of New South Wales, two great women have been sovereign for 120 years—Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. The stability these women provided us so that our democracy may flourish is often ignored. It should not be. As Lord Hannan wrote in the Telegraph this week:
It is striking to see how many of the world’s most liberal, tranquil, contented and egalitarian countries turn out to be constitutional monarchies: Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway. Even more striking is how many of these states share the same monarch …
now King Charles III.
I was privileged to attend the Queen’s final garden party with my mother at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh 2019. Her late Majesty was resplendent in pink, and as Menzies said all those years ago:
I did but see her passing by,
And yet I love her till I die.
The late Queen endured many trials and many tribulations, usually caused by members of her immediate family. I am sure at low points in recent times Her Majesty might possibly have privately wished for once again the ability to summarily confine Harry and Meghan, and Andrew too, to the Tower of London, or possibly worse. But despite being the fount of justice, those prerogative powers have been substantially reduced over the last few centuries.
I will end my final speech to this place as I concluded my first. I again swear by almighty God that I and the people of Kew will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, who has now, by the death of our late Sovereign of happy memory, Queen Elizabeth II, become our only lawful and rightful liege lord, Charles III, by the grace of God of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, Australia and of his other realms and territories, King, head of the Commonwealth, defender of the faith to whom we do acknowledge all faith and obedience with humble affection, beseeching God whom kings and queens do reign to bless His Majesty with long and happy years to reign over us. And may we recite again the hymn and anthem with enthusiasm and loyalty, God save the King.