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The Queen's death has sparked a new debate about the monarchy in Australia

2022-09-19T14:55:52.185Z


The Queen's death has sparked a new debate about the monarchy in Australia Created: 09/19/2022, 16:45 By: Catherine Loesche Queen Elizabeth II's face is projected onto the sails of Sydney's iconic Opera House as a sign of mourning. © Robert Wallace/afp The queen is dead, long live the king. With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III moves into Australia. to the head of the state. B


The Queen's death has sparked a new debate about the monarchy in Australia

Created: 09/19/2022, 16:45

By: Catherine Loesche

Queen Elizabeth II's face is projected onto the sails of Sydney's iconic Opera House as a sign of mourning.

© Robert Wallace/afp

The queen is dead, long live the king.

With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III moves into Australia.

to the head of the state.

But does the government in Canberra need a royal head of state at all?

Brisbane – 21 cannon shots thundered over the Australian capital Canberra on September 11, 2022.

Australia appointed King Charles III.

officially the new ruler after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, swearing "loyalty and obedience" to him.

The country's constitution states that a head of state previously confirmed elsewhere is to be recognised.

And so every movement, every step on the forecourt of the Houses of Parliament in Canberra followed the traditions of London.

The ceremony fueled a debate in the country that predates Australia's 1999 referendum on secession from the Crown.

Blame for the failure of a republic at that time was attributed to admiration for Queen Elizabeth.

Since then, it was taken for granted that as long as the Queen reigned, it was an issue non grata.

But now Charles sits on the throne.

And Australia is debating whether that country should sever its constitutional ties with Britain.

Death of Queen Elizabeth II: Australian Referendum on Republic

How little discretion the government around the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had in the proclamation of Charles III.

was evident at the celebrations.

Governor-General David Hurley said he directed Albanese to sign the proclamation.

"Signed by me as Governor-General and countersigned on my order by the Honorable Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia," Hurley said.

In his capacity as King of Australia, Charles III.

represented in Australia by the Governor General.

In other words, Albanese had no say in the matter.

Asked by journalists about a republic, Albanese said Queen Elizabeth had "made it clear during her lifetime that Australia controls its own destiny".

His views on a republic are known, but now is "not the right time" to start a new debate on constitutional amendment, he said.

Now is a time of mourning.

Commonwealth of Australia: Aspirations for republic suspended in mourning period

"Although we suspended our campaign during the period of mourning, we have never seen so many registrations," said Sandy Biar, director of the non-partisan organization Australian Republic Movement (ARM), which works for a republic in Australia, IPPEN's

Merkur.de

. MEDIA.

After the official holiday marking the Queen's death this week, the campaign will be intensified again.

Backing comes from former Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

"I always believed that the death of the Queen would put Australia on the road to becoming a republic," Gillard told ABC public television.

Commenting on the overwhelming sympathy at the Queen's death, Gillard said that Queen Elizabeth's long service to the crown has provided "a kind of calm zone in this chaotic, fractured world".

However, she admitted that the monarchy is also viewed critically, especially in Australia.

British head of state - a symbol of colonization

For many Aboriginal Australians, the Queen was the poster child for colonial exploitation and brutality.

The arrival of the British convict colony in 1788 marked the beginning of dispossession and enslavement that continues to this day.

"We cannot mourn something that has colonized us for so many generations," Aboriginal Tent Embassy Ambassador to Canberra Gwenda Stanley told Australian media.

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The monarchy's legacy is that it has lived a life of privilege, having benefited from the genocide of that country's indigenous people.

What remains is the injustice of the genocide that will take them to the grave.

Indigenous leader Professor Tom Calma of the University of Canberra, on the other hand, said he harbored "no animosity" towards the late monarch.

She ascended the throne more than a century and a half after British colonization.

"She inherited the dilemma."

About IPPEN.MEDIA

The IPPEN.MEDIA network is one of the largest online publishers in Germany.

At the locations in Berlin, Hamburg/Bremen, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart and Vienna, journalists from our central editorial office research and publish for more than 50 news offers.

These include brands such as Münchner Merkur, Frankfurter Rundschau and BuzzFeed Germany.

Our news, interviews, analyzes and comments reach more than 5 million people in Germany every day.

Monarchy is part of the Australian system

Opposition leader Peter Dutton, among others, is facing opposition to the move away from a British head of state.

"We need a king as much as we need a queen because we have a stable political system that has served us well and I don't think we should undo that," he told ABC.

Former Prime Minister John Howard also spoke out against a change.

"I think the strength, durability and flexibility of the constitutional monarchy is appreciated by more people than you can imagine." The debate will never end.

"But that's a good thing, we are a democracy and people can campaign for change."

Australia: More than 2/3 of the Commonwealth seceded from the Crown

In recent years, 39 of the 54 Commonwealth countries have already decided to elect their own head of state.

According to a survey by the polling institute Resolve, a narrow majority of 54 percent of Australians nationwide spoke in favor of a republic at the beginning of the year.

The fact is, whether you like it or not, the monarchy is a relic of aristocratic hereditary privileges.

With Charles III

the foundation stone is laid for the next 90 years or so, in which a white, German-English, Protestant man is the head of state of Australia and "defender of the faith".

On Charles III.

William V. follows and then George VIII. This raises the question: does that still fit with an Australia that, with the new head of government Albanese, has made reconciliation with the indigenous peoples a priority?

In which, according to last year's census, less than ten percent of the population adheres to the Anglican faith?

In which the government recognizes that this nation did not come into being as late as 1788, but is at least 65,000 years old?

Perhaps, with the change of throne at Buckingham Palace, the time has now come for the country to follow the call of its national anthem "Advance Australia Fair" and enable itself to (progress) into its own future.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-09-19

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