Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience) Share this | Hansard source

I stand here very, very proudly as the Leader of the National Party in the Senate to congratulate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on achieving such an extraordinary milestone.

We often talk about women in leadership. This particular woman has led her nation, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth for 70 years. She's seen tumultuous times and she's seen extraordinary change over that period—culturally, structurally and economically. What a fabulous example she is of how to do it right!

The sixth of February marked 70 years since Her Majesty acceded to the throne at the age of 25 following the death of her father, King George VI.

Our party, the Nationals, proudly recognises constitutional monarchy as a stable and strong foundation for liberal democracies such as ours. We're very proud to celebrate the values shared with the UK and the monarchy: faith, family and freedom. It is those three values which the constitutional monarchy of the British throne and the Commonwealth more broadly have sought to prosecute, particularly under Her Majesty's rule. She's spent an incredible 73 per cent of her life on the throne and, in 2015, surpassed her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. No-one even questions that she happens also to be a woman. It's an extraordinary achievement.

Since ascending to the throne in 1952, Her Majesty has presided over a period of immense social, economic and political transformation both in Australia and across the Commonwealth. Throughout, the Queen has been a constant presence, a constant source of institutional stability—a rock. In fact, for over half of our history as a federation, the Queen has been our monarch, and this means that most Australians have known no other sovereign.

It was my great personal privilege to meet Her Majesty when she last visited Australia, when the Labor Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, introduced me to Her Majesty here in Parliament House. I was able to take my mother, who, as a very young girl, had waved Australian flags on the side of the road in Melbourne at the 1954 visit of Her Majesty.

The Queen has seen 15 prime ministers here in Australia, and there have been 12 National Party leaders during her reign. Over the past seven decades, Her Majesty has cultivated enduring ties with Australians, being the first reigning monarch to visit Australia in 1954. Her Majesty has undertaken 16 official tours of our nation, marking important milestones, anniversaries or celebrations of Australian culture and history, including the opening of Parliament House in 1988. So strong is her tie to this nation that she chose to send the future king to school here for a period of time. That was not an accidental occurrence; it was a deliberate decision by Her Majesty to make sure that the future monarch, Prince Charles, would have a very deep and real understanding of who we are as a country and how different we are from the UK at some levels. Those ties have gone through other family members as well. She's travelled across the vast expanse of our country, meeting countless Australians of all cultures and walks of life.

Like us in the National Party, the Queen has a deep love for and affiliation with rural life and all that it entails. She's a keen horsewoman and backs the racing industry as you wouldn't believe. I hear the Greens complaining, but what a fabulous industry! She's got some great bloodlines going. She spends every summer at her rural estate in Balmoral in the Highlands of Scotland. She's a farmer, and she's also a shooter. On any measure of rural living, that's the trifecta, and I'm very proud that she has so many affinities with rural and regional Australia on those particular issues.

Indeed, Her Majesty has always expressed her admiration for Australians' resilience and their 'stoic and determined spirit' in the face of extreme weather, droughts, floods and bushfires. It's best exemplified by her sending members of the royal family at our time of need to lift the spirits of those Australians, particularly in rural and regional areas, going through these natural disasters but also by her donation to drought relief for the heart and soul of Australia in 2018, when we were going through those horrific events. Thank you, Your Majesty, for that—thinking of us at that time of need.

I think it's fair to say that across Australia there is a deep respect and admiration for our Queen: for her wisdom, her kindness and her sense of duty. I love that her publicly published correspondence says: 'in your service'. I think her sense of duty and her complete commitment to living a life of service, in humility and through tough times, is again an example for us all. I'll finish with this quote from Her Majesty:

When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.

That, I believe, provides a clear insight into our Queen, both as a person and as a monarch. On behalf of the Nationals in the Senate, we sincerely thank Her Majesty for leading by example, for her unfailing service, for her dedication and for the unshakable sense of duty that our Queen has shown for Australia and for the Commonwealth over the past 70 years.