British monarch missing from Australian banknotes

Australia’s central bank announced this Thursday that it will stop using the portrait of the British monarch on new banknotes to be issued in the country, replacing them with elements that pay homage to Aboriginal culture.

The Reserve Bank of Australia said the new five Australian dollar (3.2 euro) banknotes would not feature a portrait of the new British monarch, Charles III, but elements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

The central bank said Aboriginal people will be consulted on new banknotes that will take years to design and print in a project that “honors the culture and history of early Australians,” the statement said.

The portrait of Elizabeth II first appeared on the Australian five dollar banknote in 1992 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of her accession to the British throne. It was currently the only note that still had a portrait of the monarch who had died in September.

“monarch [britânico] it will still be on coins, but the $5 bill will speak more about our history, our heritage and our country,” Australian Finance Minister Jim Chalmers said at a press conference.

The Leader of the Opposition likened the decision to changing the date of Australia Day. “I know the silent majority disagrees with much of this leftist bullshit, but we need to listen more to these people,” Peter Dutton told 2GB radio.

The move was hailed by the Australian Republican Movement, indicating that Aboriginal people had lived on the island for at least 60,000 years prior to British colonization in 1788.

“To think that an unelected king should be on our money, and not chiefs, elders and prominent Australians, is no longer justified in a time of truth, reconciliation and, ultimately, formal, cultural and intellectual independence,” said the president of the movement. , Craig Foster.

The Labor government of Anthony Albanese, who took office in May 2022, has already promised to hold a referendum this year to give Aboriginal people the right to vote in Parliament and recognize indigenous communities in the Constitution.

Aboriginal people, one of the world’s oldest cultures, make up 3.2% of Australia’s total population, but they denounce constant abuse, in addition to land dispossession and systematic discrimination by institutions, organizations and society at large. .

Although he is a committed Republican, Albanese said after Isabella II’s death that a referendum on Aboriginal political rights was a priority, rather than replacing the monarchy with a republic.

In 1999, the Australians rejected the transition to a republic in a referendum. At the time, polls taken before the death of Elizabeth II showed that the majority of Australians were in favor of abolishing the monarchy.

The Republican question was revived after Albanese came to power, quickly appointing the country’s first “Deputy Minister for the Republic”, hinting that another referendum might be held in the future.