The role of King Charles III. as Australia’s head of state may be “only a matter of time” as the royals are “too busy fighting among themselves” to represent modern Australia, locals and a leading campaign group said after the decision was made that the country monarch should be removed from the country. 5 dollar bill.
Sandy Biar, National Director and Chief Executive of the Australian Republican Movement (ARM), said she welcomed the decision, adding that there is now a “tangible feeling”… It is time for Australia to take this step towards our full independence.”
“We knew that as soon as the reality of King Charles came, support would return to the Republic,” he said. I.
“The idea of being born to rule is absurd and should be struck out of our constitution. We’d better inherit our head of state from a dysfunctional family on the other side of the planet.”
The comments come after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced on Thursday that it will replace the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on the $5 banknote with a new design that reflects Australia’s indigenous history. The decision was made after consultation with the Australian government, which also supports the changes.
“The bank will consult with First Australian on the design of the $5 note,” said the RBA, which will continue to feature the Australian Parliament on the back. “The design and printing of the new banknote will take several years,” she added.
The death of Elizabeth II sparked controversy in Australia about her future as a constitutional monarchy. In a 1999 referendum, voters chose to keep the British monarch as head of state. A recent poll shows that support for the Republic has risen from 36 percent to 39 percent in the four months since the queen’s death, while the vote against change has fallen from 37 percent to 31 percent, but about 30 percent of the population is undecided to stay.
Meanwhile, an Ipsos poll in December 2022 found that Australians were divided on the future of the monarchy. Some 54 percent agreed that Australia should break off official relations with the British monarchy after the Queen’s death, but 46 percent disagreed. A referendum on the issue was also supported: 58 percent said Albanians should vote according to the Ipsos results.
Support for the recognition of Indigenous Australians is also growing. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will hold a referendum this year on whether to recognize tribal peoples in the constitution and in decisions about their lives.
Mr Albanese is a longtime Republican who has previously said it was “inappropriate” to discuss the referendum while mourning the Queen, but has not ruled out such a referendum in the future.
Craig Foster, chairman of ARM, said the switch to the $5 bill was an important symbolic step in recognizing Indigenous Australians who lived in the country 65,000 years before the British settled it.
“Australia believes in meritocracy, so the idea that someone should be in our currency by birth is incompatible, as is the idea that they should be our head of state by birth,” Foster said.
“Australians deserve to reflect themselves and only themselves in our Constitution, our system of government and all national symbols, including our currency.
However, the move was controversial, with Australian Monarchist League spokesman Jeremy Mann saying he was “incredibly disappointed” with the decision, “particularly shortly after the Queen’s death”.
“There are many other fantastic ways to get to know our Indigenous Australians, but removing the monarch’s head from our banknote just won’t work.”
He said the move showed “the government’s willingness to covertly introduce republicanism … before it gets a mandate in a referendum.”
Mr Mann didn’t think the recent turmoil in the royal family following the publication of Prince Harry’s explosive book and Prince Andrew’s agreement with Virginia Giuffre had swayed local opinion. Instead, he sees the monarchy as an important form of defense against the political dominance that would arise in a presidential-type republican system.
“The younger generation especially has a healthy distrust of governments, and politicians don’t represent them the way they would like,” he said.
“They don’t have to be fans of the monarchy… but they see the monarchy primarily as an institution designed to keep politicians in check. [They’re] focused on protecting our system of government that has worked so well for over 100 years.”
Australians are also divided on the issue, with some saying the monarchy is “redundant” while others say King Charles should still be in the currency.
said Alison Galkin Riffat I The move is “a change in the right direction to acknowledge Australia’s true history.
“The monarchy is superfluous and does not reflect us, we do not need it at our level. Yes, it is symbolic, but unfortunately, given the political context in this country, we have only small symbolic changes at the moment, which we hope will lead to big changes in the future. We must keep moving forward.”
Others, such as Amiel Curtin, support the change but want “the final decision on who goes on the note to be up to the indigenous people” instead of letting the character pick from “characters who are perhaps more appealing to Australians.” in public”.
Phil Raymond, a 40-year-old primary school teacher from Western Australia, spoke out against the change. “The King is still our monarch and should be on the $5 bill instead of the Queen. I would like Australia to remain a constitutional monarchy, but unfortunately it is beginning to look like a republic is only a matter of time.”
Not all reactions were based on party lines: Mark Darwin, who previously voted Labor or the Greens, said he felt “alienated” by the change and that it was exaggerated given that indigenous people make up only a small part of the population represented . .
But some see it as a positive long-term move, like Carol Galkin Riffat, a Melbourne nurse, who said: “Our children will grow up with money that holds a true representation of Australian culture that we never had as children. The kids will be made to understand our real story, not just the limited things we learned in school – that’s amazing.”
Peter Dutton, leader of the main opposition Liberal Party, also called the RBA’s decision politically motivated.
“There is no doubt that it is run by the government and I think the prime minister should recognize that,” he told local radio station 2GB.
Lydia Thorpe, a Green Indigenous Party politician who made headlines after calling the Queen a “colonizer” during her swearing-in in Parliament, celebrated a “massive victory for the grassroots, the indigenous, the supporters of the decolonization of this country.”
The 5 Australian dollar note is the only Australian banknote to feature the Queen. The Australian coins are to feature the British monarch, while the new coins will feature King Charles. King Charles is the head of state for Australia, New Zealand and 12 other Commonwealth realms outside the United Kingdom, although his role is mostly ceremonial.
Source: I News
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