Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That:

An address to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the following terms be agreed to:

YOUR MAJESTY:

We, the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, received with great sorrow the news of the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. On behalf of the Australian people, we express deep sympathy to Your Majesty and other members of the Royal Family, and give thanks for a remarkable life dedicated to service, devotion and commitment.

For almost 80 years, Prince Philip served the Crown, his country and our Commonwealth. He was part of a generation that we will never see again: a generation who defied tyranny, who won a peace and built a liberal world order that protects and favours freedom, a generation who found meaning in service over self and to whom we owe so much. Prince Philip, as consort to the monarch, is said to have remarked, 'Constitutionally, I don't exist.' That no doubt is true, but it belies the Prince's lifelong support of the Queen as an exemplar of a life of service. In Her Majesty's own words, Prince Philip was her 'strength and stay'.

They were married a remarkable 73 years—remarkable in any time, in any context, but even more remarkable under an unrelenting public gaze. It was a romance that began when he was a young officer in the Royal Navy. Prior to war, he graduated top of his class at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth. At 21 he was the youngest first lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Like so many others, the war had tempered this young lieutenant. It forced him to confront who he was, what he valued and how he would live. He wrote after war's end to his betrothed:

To have been spared in war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one's personal and even the world's troubles seem small and petty.

The then Lieutenant Mountbatten and Princess Elizabeth married in 1947. In keeping with the times, ration coupons were used to purchase the wedding dress. Five years later the princess became our Queen, and Prince Philip put aside his active military career and took up the role of royal consort and companion. It was a role that required another to shine, not him. That takes a certain humility, as well as a deep understanding of what service truly means. Whilst their partnership embodied the tradition and timelessness of monarchy, their partnership in another way was one ahead of its time—a husband who put aside his career to support and affirm the work of his wife.

The role of consort is one without a rule book. Prince Philip put his own unique stamp on the role with geniality, good humour, a genuine interest in others and a fair dinkum authenticity. By the time he had retired at the sprightly age of 96, he had undertaken some 22,000 public engagements. Those of us here have been to plenty of engagements, but I don't think any of us would pretend to a number of that scale. Again and again, he deployed his trademark lightheartedness to draw out people and put them at ease. It was an unfaltering service, always walking two steps behind Her Majesty. What you saw was what you got. If the photographers were taking too long, he'd tell them. If the environment was in danger, he'd indeed say it. If monarchy could encourage and inspire, he made sure that it did.

Sixty-five years ago, Prince Philip created the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, an award that is about young people giving their best, taking responsibility, persevering, developing skills, giving back and making a contribution. He described the award as a 'do-it-yourself growing-up kit', an award modelled on how the Duke himself saw life. In Australia alone, 775,000 young people have completed the award. Millions more have done so around the world. Every one of those lives gained a layer of texture because of that experience.

Internationally, the Prince was patron or president of more than 750 organisations and, of those hundreds, 50 were here in Australia. Many of them reflected his personal passions for conservation, science, industry, design, engineering, sport and of course the military.

Prince Philip was a frequent visitor to Australia over his life. In fact he first came to our shores as a midshipman aboard the battleship Ramillies in 1940 and again in 1945 aboard the Royal Navy destroyer Whelp. One trip that is almost lost to history but is worth recounting today here in this place was his visit to Australia in 1967, some 54 years ago. In February of that year, Tasmania experienced its most deadly bushfire, Black Tuesday, a day when 64 people died and more than 7,000 lost their homes. Less than a month later, the Duke visited Tasmania's fire ravaged southern region on what some dubbed a 'protocol-wrecking tour'. He travelled through Taroona, Kingston, Margate and Snug. He met with people and heard their stories. He listened, he consoled and he did his best to lift everyone's spirits. But that's not where the story ended, because a year later he returned to visit the same sites and the same people. He was checking in.

Over his 80 years of service Australians saw the measure of Prince Philip. More than the husband and partner of our sovereign, he was an authentic man, who, despite the protocol and privilege that surrounded him, sought to reach out and connect with people and good causes in his own way. He was a genuine defender of Australia. Today we place on record our gratitude for his lifetime of service to the Crown, to our Commonwealth and to our country. We honour, indeed, a remarkable life that bore witness to almost 100 years of history in the making of our modern world.

On behalf of all Australians, I extend our sincere condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and to the royal family in this their time of grief, but especially to Her Majesty. The image of her seated alone at her prince's funeral service was a very solemn one. I know she would have been drawing, as she always has, great comfort from her very deep faith. But let also now our Commonwealth seek to sustain her as she continues in her selfless and devoted duty to our Commonwealth and, indeed, to Australia. Let us, her Commonwealth, be her strength and her stay. To Her Majesty, we send Australia's love and respect, and to His Royal Highness, may he rest in peace.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join with the Prime Minister in giving an address of condolence on the death of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on behalf of the Australian Labor Party. Prince Philip was always part of the picture. By the time any of us here in this place was born he was already a veteran of royal duty, a veteran of war, a veteran of life. In his near century His Royal Highness knew conflict and peace, empire and Commonwealth, turbulence and tranquillity. He was such a familiar face of the establishment it was easy to forget that as a baby his family smuggled him out of his native Corfu and into exile concealed in an orange crate. From there his childhood was an unrelenting cascade of chaos and loss. He was abandoned by his father. His mother went into psychiatric care. His beloved sister was killed in an air crash. He was shuffled between countries and schools and languages, left to depend on the support of relatives. Even though he was a royal he understood what it was to be an outsider. His cousin Alexandra, the Queen of Yugoslavia, remembered the young Philip as, 'A huge, hungry dog, perhaps a friendly collie, who never had a basket of his own,' and yet he rose.

In the Navy he found a sense of home. When the war came, bringing with it an enemy that was as relentless as it was merciless, he showed courage and clear thinking. He found love with Elizabeth, a love that survived and thrived even after they were thrust into the strange limelight of royal power far sooner than either of them had ever anticipated. During his many decades devoted to his Queen, his nation and the Commonwealth he also became an enduring part of the story of our nation. His first visit to Australia was in 1940, a midshipman aboard a battleship that escorted Australian troops from Melbourne to the Suez. He eventually became a regular visitor to our shores, not least of which was his extensive visit here with the Queen in 1954, as well as his opening of our Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956.

Just as he shared in our joys and our triumphs, he shared in our sorrows, seeing with his own eyes the awful devastation wrought by bushfire. Throughout it all he developed multiple connections here and ultimately built the lasting legacy in the form of the Duke of Edinburgh's award scheme. It gives great encouragement and support to young people as they grow into adulthood, both making them aware of their potential and equipping them with the means to reach it. Nearly 800,000 young Australians, my son Nathan included, have participated in and benefited from this scheme, amongst the more than eight million across the world who have participated so far.

He also took keen interest in other aspects of our great continent. As an avid birdwatcher, he was captivated by the rediscovery of the noisy scrub-bird in Western Australia. So it wasn't just an academic exercise; he campaigned to create the Two Peoples Bay Nature Reserve to give it a fighting chance at survival. As he once told the BBC, 'The power that humanity wields over other species is something that must be exercised with a moral sense.'

It is true that perceptions of him often threatened to harden into caricature. But, as even British newspaper the Observer noted, there was a gulf between the media coverage and the reality of the man. Prince Philip, being Philip, was philosophical about this, offering the thought: 'Safer to not be too popular; you can't fall too far.' It was certainly my observation when I met him and the Queen during the first G20 meeting, during the global financial crisis, at Buckingham Palace. He was someone who showed that attention to duty, and could be very charming indeed.

Throughout it all, of course, there was his Queen Elizabeth. Prince Philip's death brings to an end one of the most remarkable and enduring partnerships of our time. Queen Elizabeth often found ways to describe the central place Prince Philip occupied in her life. Indeed, she once said that she owed him 'a debt greater than he would ever claim or we shall ever know'. It was such a poignant image of the Queen at the funeral—so sad. Amid the solemn pageantry, in the end there was just her, alone—a human being without the partner who had been her great counterweight in the adventure of life. We mourn Prince Philip but we also celebrate a long and truly remarkable life. On behalf of the Australian Labor Party, I extend my condolences to Her Majesty and to the royal family.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Australian Defence Force, I rise to extend our most profound sympathies to Her Majesty. With the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh, His Royal Highness Prince Philip, we have lost a loyal and distinguished servant of our Westminster democracy and of our armed forces. We have lost a giant of our time.

At 18 months old, in December 1922, Philip was forced to flee his native Greece. Amid a military coup, his first naval voyage was to be an evacuation aboard the Royal Navy's HMS Calypso. The future royal consort spent the Adriatic crossing to Italy in a cot, fashioned, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out, from an orange crate. The Prince's family found refuge in the western Parisian suburb of Saint-Cloud. At a young age, parental circumstances saw Philip cross the Channel to live with family and attend school in Great Britain. It was here that this nomad found his home.

The Prince would go on to attend the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, graduating as best cadet. It was also at Dartmouth, in April 1939, that Philip would meet Elizabeth for the second time. They would soon enter into regular correspondence. The Nazi invasion of Poland took place less than six months later, and the world was plunged into devastating conflict. Philip joined the battleship HMS Ramillies in Ceylon—modern day Sri Lanka—in January 1940. It was aboard this vessel that Philip first visited Australia, taking part in the escort of ANZAC troop convoys to the Suez.

By March 1941 the 19-year-old Duke was serving on the Queen Elizabeth class battleship HMS Valiant in the Battle of Cape Matapan. The Greek prince, forced to flee Corfu on the corvette Calypso as an infant, had returned to Greece on a battleship to defend her. Philip's actions, directing a search light onto Italian cruisers which were subsequently destroyed, saw him mentioned in despatches and later awarded a Greek War Cross. The engagement was a major strategic victory for the Allies, including the Royal Australian Navy, which, as we know, served with distinction.

During the 1943 invasion of Sicily, Philip saved his ship, the destroyer HMS Wallace, from a likely lethal German aerial bombardment. Luftwaffe dive-bombers were undertaking a persistent night-time assault on the vessel when Philip seized the initiative. In the minutes the enemy aircraft was preparing to make another run over the Wallace, Philip set in motion an inspired diversion. He filled a wooden raft with rubbish and set it on fire. Smoke floats were attached to the end, and the raft was launched into the water. On its return, the German aircraft was deceived by the flames and the smoke, and the pilot mistakenly believed he had destroyed the British battleship on his previous attempt. Harry Hargreaves, who had also served on the Wallace, would later say, 'Prince Philip saved our lives that night.' Philip would take part in the Allied invasion of southern France, before joining the British Pacific Fleet. As First Lieutenant of the W-class destroyer HMS Whelp, the Prince would visit Sydney, Darwin and Melbourne. On 2 September 1945 he was present in Tokyo Bay, as the Japanese foreign minister signed the instrument of surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri.

With the war over, in 1947 the Prince married the love of his life, Elizabeth. Their first child, Charles, was born in 1948. One year later, Philip joined the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet at Malta, where he continued his promising naval career. The Duke was promoted to lieutenant commander and, in 1950, given his first command, the HMS Magpie. Fate then intervened. Philip's father-in-law's health began to dramatically decline, and, in 1951, he took indefinite leave from the Navy. Less than a year later, on 6 February 1952, King George VI passed in his sleep. Just as for Prince Albert, who was unexpectedly thrust onto the throne through the abdication crisis, the young couple found their lives jarringly changed forever. This ambitious and dynamic young naval officer would refocus his energy into a new form of service. He would support his Queen, whilst stridently carving out his own identity and role. He was a maverick and a moderniser, who led to navigate and ultimately strengthen an ancient and storied institution, and he did it his way.

Philip always proudly maintained his connection to the armed services and to Australia. On presenting a Queen's Colour to HMAS Cerberus during the 1954 royal visit, the Prince reflected: 'I had the good fortune to serve with Australian seamen on Australian ships in the last war in the Mediterranean and in the Pacific. I have a firsthand respect for their qualities. You have a splendid tradition to live up to, and I hope this Colour will always serve to remind you of the valour and achievements of the men of the Royal Australian Navy.' On 1 April 1954, Her Majesty appointed the Duke as Admiral of the Fleet in the Royal Australian Navy, Field Marshal in the Australian Army and Marshal of the Royal Australian Air Force. Philip had a very special affinity with our Army cadets and the Royal Corps of Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, serving as the Colonel in Chief of both.

Philip lived a truly remarkable life of service to the Commonwealth and to his Queen. As Elizabeth's strength and stay, he was the longest serving consort in history. He was Her Majesty's best friend, her closest confidante and her sounding board. From the good times to the horrible, Philip was always there, two steps behind. This House sends our deepest and most sincere condolences to Her Majesty. We stand with you, we grieve for you and we grieve with you.

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Prince Philip had a deep connection with Australia. It began at the age of 18 in 1940, when, as a midshipman aboard HMS Ramillies, he helped escort Australian troops across the Indian Ocean to Egypt. In many ways, this first engagement with Australia came to characterise Prince Philip's life, because, as a decorated naval officer and as consort to the British monarch, Prince Philip's was a life of astonishing service.

He visited Australia on more than 20 occasions. So it was no surprise that, when the Queen and Prince Philip decided that at least part of Prince Charles's education should occur in another country of the Commonwealth, they chose Australia—more specifically, the Timbertop campus of Geelong Grammar School. The outdoor education of Timbertop was inspired by the educational philosophies of Kurt Hahn, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, who, in 1934, founded the Gordonstoun school in Scotland, which was Prince Philip's own alma mater. It was a school to which he was devoted throughout his life. It was where his three sons did the bulk of their education and where Princess Anne sent her own children and served on the board of governors. As a boy at the school, Prince Philip was the guardian of Gordonstoun, the school captain.

When you look at the philosophies of Kurt Hahn, they speak to the essence of Prince Philip. Hahn believed that an education should give a child the experience of self-discovery, that it should enable a child the opportunity to meet triumph and defeat. Right there, you've got the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, which Prince Philip established with Kurt Hahn in 1956 to provide young people with the opportunity to have new experiences through physical and community challenges. Since then, millions of people around the world, from 90 countries, have gained the benefit of participation in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award program. Hahn also believed that an education should give a child the opportunity of self-effacement in the face of a greater cause—in other words, that it should instil a spirit of service towards others. Instilling that spirit remains part of the educational tenets of Gordonstoun to this day.

Prince Philip served in the name of science, he served in the name of the environment and he served thousands of organisations throughout his life and, through them, millions of people in the Commonwealth and Great Britain. But, most especially, he served his wife and his sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, as the longest serving consort to a reigning British monarch, over an astonishing period of 69 years. Think about it: here was a man who was larger than life and charismatic and who, by instinct, probably would have imagined himself to be the one out front but who willingly made a decision to be the one behind and to make his life about providing support to another. Of course, that's a decision that millions of people make—to provide support to a husband or a wife, or to give loyal and faithful service to a leader at work—but Prince Philip's example reminds us that those who give that support are just as important as the ones who are out front, and that, in making that decision, there is in it a profound nobility and that, just occasionally, it is that person who gets recognition of the highest order.

After his visit in 1971, the people of the dramatically beautiful volcanic island of Tanna, in southern Vanuatu, came to literally worship Prince Philip as a living god. Whatever his status, Prince Philip leaves this world much loved, as the reaction around Australia to his passing has shown. His life is acknowledged here today by a deeply grateful nation.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the fine and eloquent words by the Prime Minister, the opposition leader, the defence minister and the Deputy Leader of the Labor Party about a truly remarkable man. His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was committed to a life of service, of service to others. He was undoubtedly Her Majesty's rock, so consistently was he with her, supporting and encouraging Her Majesty. However, recent statistics show that, since 1952, the Duke of Edinburgh had completed 22,219 solo engagements. That's truly amazing. Each and every engagement focused on reaching out to the peoples of the Commonwealth and, indeed, the world. These were not over five, 10 or even 20 years of service; this was a lifetime of service lived for others. Many people choose to retire in their 50s, their 60s or perhaps their early 70s. Prince Philip scaled back at age 96. Just imagine that.

For Australians, amongst his most enduring of legacies has been the Duke of Edinburgh's Award, as has been spoken of before. This youth development program empowers young Australians aged between 14 and 24 to explore their full potential, to be their best selves and to find their purpose, passion and place in the world, regardless of their location or circumstance. It is a fully inclusive program, with no social, political or religious affiliations. The award's national chair in Australia, Gary Nairn AO, said this:

We have lost a great man who, over more than 60 years, gave inspiration to young people to explore their potential and achieve success …

Prince Philip leaves behind a wonderful legacy that will continue to benefit youth across the world.

Indeed it will. This rings so true when we see the award's scope: since 1959, motivating 775,000 young Australians to set goals and challenge themselves as they build their lives. There are participants across the Riverina, my electorate, taking this opportunity with both hands right now, and, indeed, 60,000 volunteers are supporting 45,000 young Australians currently taking that very challenge.

Communities across Australia have responded with consistent enthusiasm to royal visits. Since Her Majesty's coronation, Wagga Wagga, in New South Wales, my home town, has hosted multiple visits. Indeed, I once complained when I was the editor of the Daily Advertiser at Wagga that we had actually had more royal visits than prime ministerial visits. Fortunately, we now get a few more visits from the Acting Prime Minister—but I digress. The Duke visited Wagga Wagga with Her Majesty in February 1954 and again in October 1973. In 1954, honouring their effort and reflecting the tremendous interest, tens of thousands of people turned out, despite the Wagga Wagga heat. It was reported that, of the 15,000 children gathered in the centre of Robertson Oval, 500 fainted in the heat and had to be stretchered off. Amongst the treasured memories of the 1973 visit are photographs of the Duke deep in conversation with Riverina College of Advanced Education students, many of them resplendent in their flared pants fashion of the day.

In 2000, as part of a three-day royal tour of New South Wales, the Duke of Edinburgh visited the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University to see firsthand developments in the wine industry, the cheese making and the internationally acclaimed equine centre. Also that year, the Queen and Duke visited the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture right here in Canberra. This national centre had been recently announced as a joint initiative of CSU and the Anglican diocese of Canberra and Goulburn. As then Vice-Chancellor of CSU Professor Cliff Blake said: 'The university's inclusion in both the New South Wales and Canberra royal tours was indeed a high honour and significant recognition for CSU.'

The visit to the cheese factory on the uni campus back at Wagga Wagga brought one or two unexpected outcomes, creating headlines, indeed, that reached the United Kingdom. It came not long after intense press debate over headgear worn by Prince Charles on a tour of the Caribbean. The Duke's travelling party explained to the cheese factory team, 'He will be here for four minutes. He won't have time to put the hairnet and factory gear on.' The visit was a roaring success but left in its wake a batch of lemon myrtle herb cheese, valued at a couple of grand, with an uncertain future on the market. Someone said after the event, 'If it tests up safely, why don't we put it on the market as a Prince Philip special?'

A little more than three years ago, the Duke of Edinburgh celebrated 70 years of marriage with the Queen. Her Majesty is the only British monarch to have celebrated a platinum wedding anniversary. We are witnessing firsthand a most extraordinary period of service, highlighted by an extraordinary depth of personal commitment to the community, to the Commonwealth. Australians give deep thanks for the Duke of Edinburgh's lifetime of service and dedication. We extend our deepest sympathy to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family and to them we also say, simply, thank you.

Question agreed to, honourable members standing in their places.

Sitting suspended from 12:39 to 14:0 9