Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—A year ago today Australians awoke to the end of an era. While we knew that it was coming, it was still a shock. The death of Queen Elizabeth II is a moment that we will never forget, and in the ensuing 12 months what we have seen is the full colour, the full majesty, of the British ceremony and ritual which is a bedrock of the world—the proclamation, the funeral, the coronation. And with the perspective of a year, the life of Queen Elizabeth II is all the more astounding. Her calm, her presence and her image defined half the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Her sense of constancy was a source of reassurance to millions, and her selfless life of service is an example to others that will endure through the ages.

In the last 12 months, with a sense of assuredness and grace, we have also seen Prince Charles become King Charles, and in the beginning of his reign we have come to understand that he is unique because, in the entirety of British history, he is the monarch about whose thoughts and ideas we know the most—his passion for urban planning and architecture, his passion for the environment and his passion for the rights and progress of the first nations peoples of the world. Receiving some of his education in our nation, King Charles has a special connection with Australia. As I travel around the country, people often struggle with the name, an Indigenous word, of my electorate. More often than not I am incorrectly described as the member for Corio. I have had the opportunity to meet King Charles once, and that was at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda last year. It was a delight to me that with perfect pronunciation, he said to me, 'I understand that you are the member for Corio.' Not only does King Charles have a strong affinity with Australia, he knows my hometown of Geelong very well, and so on this anniversary of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, we acknowledge her life but at the same time we celebrate and congratulate King Charles III on the first anniversary of his reign.

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