ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのSenate Proceedings - Address to Her Majesty The Queen Regarding Her Platinum Jubilee

MOTIONS Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Platinum Jubilee

The PRESIDENT (16:48): I inform the Senate that 6 February 2022 marked the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Senator BIRMINGHAM (South Australia—Minister for Finance, Leader of the Government in the Senate and Vice-President of the Executive Council) (16:48): by leave—I move that the following address to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II be agreed to: YOUR MAJESTY: We, the President and Members of the Senate, express to Your Majesty our warm congratulations at this time of celebration of the Platinum Jubilee of your accession to the Throne. We express our respect and regard for the dedication you have displayed in the service of the Commonwealth and your deep and abiding commitment to Australia and her people. Today we acknowledge the Platinum Jubilee of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II—70 years, a truly remarkable achievement. Whilst we will, through 2022, continue to celebrate this extraordinary milestone and mark it throughout the Australian community, we acknowledge that, for the Queen, this milestone also marks the anniversary of the passing of her father, King George VI. Turning back to January 1952, after a Christmas spent in England a young Princess Elizabeth—just 25 years old—had set out with the Duke of Edinburgh for a tour that would include Australia and New Zealand. The young princess and her family had been buoyed by the apparent resurgence in the King's health. Hence it was with Tuesday, 8 February 2022 SENATE 47 CHAMBER enormous shock that, en route to Australia, in Sigana, Kenya, Princess Elizabeth received the sad news of the King's death on 6 February 1952. The life of the then-Princess Elizabeth was turned upside down as she became Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of the Commonwealth. As we look back on those early days of 1952, we find a time when Sir Robert Menzies was only a touch over two years into what would be his record-breaking postwar prime ministership. Very few of today's current parliamentarians were even born at that time. In a broadcast following the Queen's coronation in 1953, Her Majesty reflected on the events of the day, remarking: I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust. Strived she has, throughout all her life, and a very unique trust she has earned in Australia and around large parts of the world. Her Majesty has been the reigning sovereign for 15 Australian prime ministers and 16 governors-general, pointing to the natural change that has occurred during her reign. Change—there has certainly been a lot of it over the last 70 years. What hasn't changed is the steadfast example the world has come to expect from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Around her there has been much progress, enormous societal change, significant geopolitical change, wars, issues and challenges—many to navigate. Today we see that as much as ever. In these difficult times and throughout difficult times it has become a custom for people across the Commonwealth and beyond to look to the Queen, with confidence that she will project herself a confidence and understanding, a steadfastness, that provides some degree of reassurance at those times of challenge. In 2020 the Queen's wisdom continued to be a light and comfort in a time of sorrow, as it always has. As the world grappled with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Her Majesty remarked in a broadcast to the UK on 5 April 2020: While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed—and that success will belong to every one of us. At that time Her Majesty demonstrated a confidence and optimism that was reassuring, and, through that, provided the pathway ahead for the peoples of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, and, of course, for people throughout the Commonwealth. The Queen has, across her 70-year-long reign, remained a constant—a stabling presence in the ongoing story of our nation here in Australia and of the Commonwealth. Since her ascension to the throne, as a consequence of the way in which she has carried out her duties Australians have developed a respect and affection for the Queen that is rivalled by few, if any. There is no shortage of qualities in Her Majesty that I'm sure many could point to that have been a source of this adoration. Regardless of one's politics, regardless of one's views around constitutional structures or arrangements, the Queen's grace, compassion, diligence and dignity come to mind for many, to name just a few such qualities. Her Majesty has indeed earned the trust and admiration of so many of the Australian people. As this year of her Platinum Jubilee progresses, Australians will have the opportunity to participate in the celebrations to mark her service. In step with these celebrations I encourage all Australians to take the opportunity to reflect on the period of service by Her Majesty, and, as I'm sure she would wish, to reflect upon their own lives as to how they too can give more in service in honour of Her Majesty. On this anniversary I extend the gratitude of the Australian Senate for seven decades of unwavering public service and extend our warm wishes, congratulations and thanks to Her Majesty.

Senator PRATT (Western Australia) (16:54): Today the Senate recognises a remarkable milestone, the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Today is a landmark, the complete meaning of which is difficult to fully encapsulate in this place. It is something that has rarely been achieved by any monarch in world history. It is through a combination of circumstances that we celebrate the long reign of Australia's sovereign. Were it not for the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, and then the premature death at the age of just 56 of her father, King George VI, the Queen would never have ascended to the throne at such a young age on 6 February in 1952. Now we observe 70 years since that occasion—the Platinum Jubilee. It was nearly five years earlier on the occasion of her 21st birthday that the then Princess Elizabeth spoke to all the people of the Commonwealth from South Africa, and in doing so she made this solemn pledge: I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. While now times have changed and we may no longer talk about the 'great imperial family', there can be no doubt that Her Majesty has fulfilled her commitment over her long life. We know that during the course of her reign much has changed—the Empire has now become the Commonwealth and many nations, over which Britain was once the colonial ruler or for which the Queen was head of state, have become independent republics. For some of us, we would like to see a change in the head of state here in Australia, but this does not in any way diminish the recognition we give the Queen today for our appreciation of her life of duty, her role in Australia and in the family of the Commonwealth. Today, we join together in that community of nations that we now know as the Commonwealth as we pay tribute to Her Majesty for the extreme dedication with which she has served. When she made that very famous speech in South Africa, Princess Elizabeth spoke of her aspiration that the Commonwealth would grow to be 'more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful influence for good in the world'. It is also worth remembering that the Senate and the House of Representatives do not stand alone in our parliamentary system of government. Our own Senate Odgers advises us that parliament is 'a collective entity' consisting of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the monarch. So, in making this address today, we are also recognising the direct connection we have to the sovereign through our position as elected representatives in Australia's system of government here in the Australian Senate. We particularly acknowledge today the way in which Her Majesty has maintained her engagement with our country, especially through her visits, perhaps most famously in 1954, when she became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia but also on many other occasions such as when she opened this parliament house in 1998 and, through my own personal anecdotes, her visit to Western Australia in 1979—150 years since colonialisation—and, indeed, CHOGM, in Western Australia as well. We've seen, as a nation, her humanity, standing with us in our own times of hardship even as she has endured her own. As the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Albanese, said earlier today: 'It is possible that we can be a republican nation and still have the deepest respect for the Queen.' The Queen has done her duty. She has done her duty with vitality, integrity, humanity and even with the slightest sense of humour coming through at times as well. The opposition joins today with the government and other senators to express our sincere congratulations to the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee. We extend our very warmest regards on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

Senator FARUQI (New South Wales) (17:00): The British monarchy is a racist, colonial institution. It is a relic of the British Empire, and it shouldn't exist. But, sadly, here we are in this chamber discussing a motion to congratulate yet another monarch on whatever anniversary it is now. We are in a moment in history when millions of people are marching to make black lives matter. Statues of slave owners are being torn down, and attempts to decolonise the systems are gathering pace. But these motions serve as a painful reminder to people of colour like me, who migrated here from a place that was colonised, ravaged and looted by this very British Empire. It is another of too many brutal reminders to First Nations people here in this country who live, to this day, in colonial Australia that not only is colonialism is alive and well but that its institutions are still celebrated and cherished here. The British Crown sits on massive amounts of wealth that are the direct result of the theft of resources from colonised territories, the slave trade and occupation. The imperial colonisers ruthlessly extracted natural resources from the colonised countries to fill their coffers and feed their power and greed. This extractive, capitalist relationship is always predicated on taking more and more. In South Asia, where I come from, it was primarily the taking of resources; in Australia, it was the bloody possession of land and culture. Colonialism is not something of the past—something that is no longer relevant. The deep depravity of what was wrought may never be repaired. In many ways, colonialism has been merely transformed into the extractive and exploitative global corporations that control vast swathes of the world. You just have to look at the unabated extraction of coal and gas from sovereign land in this country. There is nothing to celebrate here. The terrible legacies of colonial rule here and everywhere cannot be ignored. Almost all the territories occupied by British colonialists suffer to this day from underdevelopment, corruption, malnutrition, hunger and conflict introduced by the coloniser. I think of places like Palestine and Kashmir, where British colonialists created arbitrary borders and where to this day there is immense suffering. Generations of Kashmiris and Palestinians have grown up without the most basic of human rights: to live and to live in peace. They have known nothing but the conflict introduced by the British. There is nothing to celebrate here. Make no mistake: motions congratulating the British royals moved in parliaments like ours are a celebration of centuries of systemic racism and exploitation by the British Empire. I, for one, will not stand for it. There is nothing to celebrate here.