James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the address commemorating the 70th anniversary of Her Majesty's ascension to the throne. Hers is a truly remarkable achievement—and I think we should call it an achievement, because it is an unbelievable life of service. She is already the longest-serving monarch in the history of the Crown—and there are different reference points you could choose as to the age of the monarchy; if we go back to the Norman conquest in 1066, then the Crown is coming up on 1,000 years. Apart from a brief unfortunate period in the 17th century, it has been continuous. She's the first monarch to reach 70 years from ascension. I dearly hope she makes 70 years from coronation, and I have confidence in that. It is a remarkable achievement, and I pay tribute to the service she has given to what was known as the British Empire, which, when she became Queen, we would now call the Commonwealth.

Of course, in this country we're a proud member of the Commonwealth of Australia, but a lot of my family heritage is English. Three-quarters of the branches of my family tree come from the United Kingdom. My grandfather—my only grandparent who is still alive—migrated here about two years after Her Majesty ascended to the throne in 1952. When she became Queen, hundreds of thousands of her British subjects chose to become Australian subjects, moving from the United Kingdom to this country. The start of her reign, and many decades afterwards, was a period of great postwar migration to this country, predominantly from the United Kingdom and then of course more broadly from Europe. Now we live in a modern multicultural nation, of which she is our head of state, where we happily have migration from all across the planet. But in the early decades of her reign there was an enormous number of British subjects coming to this country.

Sir Robert Menzies was Prime Minister of Australia at the time and Sir Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. I think, 70 years later, I can tell a rather interesting story about the coronation. Quite a famous Adelaide journalist called Stuart Coburn was Sir Robert Menzies's press secretary at the time. In fact, his stepdaughter is now the Governor of South Australia. He was married to Jennifer Cashmore, who was a state Liberal minister in South Australia and is Governor Adamson's mother. But Stuart Coburn was Sir Robert's press secretary and so travelled with Sir Robert to the coronation in 1953. A very famous photograph was taken of the Commonwealth heads of state, of which Sir Robert of course was one, and Sir Winston Churchill was in the photo with Her Majesty that evening. The press secretaries were duly given a copy of this photo to give to each of the heads of state as a very significant memento.

Well, Stuart never did that; he pocketed the photograph and kept it for his own purposes. Sir Robert was never to know that that was a memento passed on to him. Only a few years ago Jennifer Cashmore, at a local Liberal Party fundraiser, said: 'I've got an item that we might choose to donate. It could be of some interest. It's one of only 16 photographs taken of Her Majesty with the Commonwealth heads of state, and the other 15 are probably very proudly on display in some very significant locations across the Commonwealth.' So, that photograph is now happily in my possession, because I thought it was a pretty good auction item to acquire at a local Liberal Party branch meeting five or six years ago.

It's been an unbelievable 70 years—70 years of great change in this country and across the Commonwealth, which Her Majesty heads. It's been particularly poignant to have the constancy of her reign through that period. Some of the nations in what we called the 'empire' have gained their independence. We have confronted that question in this country, and I'm happy—very happy—with the decision that was made back with the referendum we held in 1999. I'm a very proud supporter and defender of our constitutional monarchy. That's not just because of the fact of the monarchy; I support the Westminster system and our system of government here. I think we have an excellent set of checks and balances. We have an excellent democracy, and it is all the more robust by having the Crown as a part of that. I can't understand how we could have the same strength of democracy if we changed our system of government in this nation.

We've had moments, of course, over her reign that have tested people's faith in our system: the 1975 dismissal, obviously, was one of those. I won't provoke people in this room by delving into my strong view that it was a very sensible and correct decision made by the Governor-General of the day. Nonetheless, we are, on some measures, the sixth-oldest democracy in the world; we have the sixth-oldest constitution, which of course came into effect in 1901. It was signed by Queen Victoria in 1900, when the bill went through the parliament in Westminster to ratify our Constitution and create our nation.

When King George VI passed away, Sir Winston Churchill addressed what was then the entire British Empire and probably the whole world at the time. He reflected on the king, his demise and the throne, and on the new era under Queen Elizabeth II. He talked about having been born in the era of Queen Victoria—the Victorian era—and how exciting it was as a young boy to live in the Victorian era. He reflected on the renewed excitement he had about living in a new Elizabethan era. Queen Elizabeth I certainly reigned over a period of time that was exciting, tumultuous and very significant—even so 500 years or more later, particularly if you're an American or a member of the Church of England! Equally, I don't think it's disrespectful to say that this new Elizabethan era will definitely be known as the Elizabethan era. It won't be questioned in any way as being an unbelievable70 years, and hopefully many more, of great change in this nation, in the Commonwealth, the British Isles and Great Britain, and also as a period of relative stability and strengthening of democratic institutions and other institutions of which Her Majesty is the head.

I am very lucky and grateful to be able to say that my entire life has been lived during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. I hope it still is for many, many years to come, and I think we can all be grateful for what we have had so far in the 70 years of her reign. Specifically for this nation, I think those things are the stability of her reign and her leadership; the time she has spent in our country; and the interest she shows in Australia and Australian subjects, which have been much appreciated and inspirational to all Australians for the last 70 years, and before that.

In contributing to this address, I congratulate her Majesty on Her 70 years. I thank her for what she has done for this country and for the entire Commonwealth over the period of her reign. I hope there are many, many years of her reign to come and I'm very proud to live in a country and serve in a parliament that has, at its apex, a great institution that is the monarchy. She is, of course, the Queen of Australia and we wish her very well on these 70 years and on many more years into the future.

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