For those of us who are citizens of the United Kingdom it is a seismic event when our Queen dies.
But it is easy to forget that the Queen is not just the Queen of the United Kingdom, but also the Queen of the Commonwealth including the nation of Australia. The Queen was the Head of State for Australia – as the new King Charles now is. Her death was treated with almost the same level of mourning and publicity as in the UK. Indeed, the Australian Prime Minister went even further and announced a public holiday for all of Australia on 22 September. Parliament was suspended for a fortnight.
Some might be surprised to see just how much the relationship of sovereign and country is significant in Australia. As a Scot in Australia, it has been a pleasant surprise to be given a day off for the Queen’s official birthday. Soon we will have banknotes and coins with the imprint of King Charles. In church on Sunday, we even had the UK national anthem played! Memorial services were held in all the cities and the bells tolled 96 times in Sydney Anglican cathedral in the centre of the city – one for each year of the Queen’s life.
In 1999, Australians voted in a referendum on whether to retain the monarch as Head of State. They rejected the proposal for a republic. However, the recently elected Labor Prime Minister, Albanese, appointed a ‘Minister for the Republic’, the first time a government minister has been appointed to advocate a Republic. But the Prime Minister also stated that another referendum would not be held during his first term of office. Assuming he gets a second term you can expect a referendum then. The question is how much the support for the monarchy was tied in with the popularity of the late Queen.
According to the 2021 census, the top five ancestries were English (33.0%), Australian (29.9%), Irish (9.5%), Scottish (8.6%) and Chinese (5.5%). Modern Australia remains a country of immigrants – with more than half the population having at least one parent born outside the country. The vast majority of these immigrants come from countries who are part of the Commonwealth.
At one level it does not appear to make much sense to have a Head of State who lives on the other side of the world. And yet, even for those who are inclined towards republicanism, there are strong reasons to retain the current system. The main difficulty being what would replace the monarchy. Australian politics is particularly brutal and ugly. Having a Head of State who is somewhat distanced from that is considered an advantage.
The world is in turbulent times. Australia, although a relatively stable country, is not immune to these times. Pray for this nation. It could yet be a key country for the spread of the gospel throughout the Indo-Pacific region – an area which contains half the world’s population.
Gossip is no longer just local – it’s global
The woman was horrified… “You wouldn’t dare do that”. She was a member in the church and had just been …