Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I inform the Senate that 6 February 2022 marked the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move that the following address to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II be agreed to:

YOUR MAJESTY:

We, the President and Members of the Senate, express to Your Majesty our warm congratulations at this time of celebration of the Platinum Jubilee of your accession to the Throne. We express our respect and regard for the dedication you have displayed in the service of the Commonwealth and your deep and abiding commitment to Australia and her people.

Today we acknowledge the Platinum Jubilee of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II—70 years, a truly remarkable achievement. Whilst we will, through 2022, continue to celebrate this extraordinary milestone and mark it throughout the Australian community, we acknowledge that, for the Queen, this milestone also marks the anniversary of the passing of her father, King George VI.

Turning back to January 1952, after a Christmas spent in England a young Princess Elizabeth—just 25 years old—had set out with the Duke of Edinburgh for a tour that would include Australia and New Zealand. The young princess and her family had been buoyed by the apparent resurgence in the King's health. Hence it was with enormous shock that, en route to Australia, in Sigana, Kenya, Princess Elizabeth received the sad news of the King's death on 6 February 1952. The life of the then-Princess Elizabeth was turned upside down as she became Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of the Commonwealth. As we look back on those early days of 1952, we find a time when Sir Robert Menzies was only a touch over two years into what would be his record-breaking postwar prime ministership. Very few of today's current parliamentarians were even born at that time.

In a broadcast following the Queen's coronation in 1953, Her Majesty reflected on the events of the day, remarking:

I have in sincerity pledged myself to your service, as so many of you are pledged to mine. Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.

Strived she has, throughout all her life, and a very unique trust she has earned in Australia and around large parts of the world.

Her Majesty has been the reigning sovereign for 15 Australian prime ministers and 16 governors-general, pointing to the natural change that has occurred during her reign. Change—there has certainly been a lot of it over the last 70 years. What hasn't changed is the steadfast example the world has come to expect from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Around her there has been much progress, enormous societal change, significant geopolitical change, wars, issues and challenges—many to navigate. Today we see that as much as ever. In these difficult times and throughout difficult times it has become a custom for people across the Commonwealth and beyond to look to the Queen, with confidence that she will project herself a confidence and understanding, a steadfastness, that provides some degree of reassurance at those times of challenge.

In 2020 the Queen's wisdom continued to be a light and comfort in a time of sorrow, as it always has. As the world grappled with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Her Majesty remarked in a broadcast to the UK on 5 April 2020:

While we have faced challenges before, this one is different. This time we join with all nations across the globe in a common endeavour, using the great advances of science and our instinctive compassion to heal. We will succeed—and that success will belong to every one of us.

At that time Her Majesty demonstrated a confidence and optimism that was reassuring, and, through that, provided the pathway ahead for the peoples of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland, and, of course, for people throughout the Commonwealth.

The Queen has, across her 70-year-long reign, remained a constant—a stabling presence in the ongoing story of our nation here in Australia and of the Commonwealth. Since her ascension to the throne, as a consequence of the way in which she has carried out her duties Australians have developed a respect and affection for the Queen that is rivalled by few, if any. There is no shortage of qualities in Her Majesty that I'm sure many could point to that have been a source of this adoration. Regardless of one's politics, regardless of one's views around constitutional structures or arrangements, the Queen's grace, compassion, diligence and dignity come to mind for many, to name just a few such qualities.

Her Majesty has indeed earned the trust and admiration of so many of the Australian people. As this year of her Platinum Jubilee progresses, Australians will have the opportunity to participate in the celebrations to mark her service. In step with these celebrations I encourage all Australians to take the opportunity to reflect on the period of service by Her Majesty, and, as I'm sure she would wish, to reflect upon their own lives as to how they too can give more in service in honour of Her Majesty.

On this anniversary I extend the gratitude of the Australian Senate for seven decades of unwavering public service and extend our warm wishes, congratulations and thanks to Her Majesty.

Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today the Senate recognises a remarkable milestone, the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Today is a landmark, the complete meaning of which is difficult to fully encapsulate in this place. It is something that has rarely been achieved by any monarch in world history. It is through a combination of circumstances that we celebrate the long reign of Australia's sovereign. Were it not for the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, and then the premature death at the age of just 56 of her father, King George VI, the Queen would never have ascended to the throne at such a young age on 6 February in 1952. Now we observe 70 years since that occasion—the Platinum Jubilee.

It was nearly five years earlier on the occasion of her 21st birthday that the then Princess Elizabeth spoke to all the people of the Commonwealth from South Africa, and in doing so she made this solemn pledge:

I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

While now times have changed and we may no longer talk about the 'great imperial family', there can be no doubt that Her Majesty has fulfilled her commitment over her long life. We know that during the course of her reign much has changed—the Empire has now become the Commonwealth and many nations, over which Britain was once the colonial ruler or for which the Queen was head of state, have become independent republics.

For some of us, we would like to see a change in the head of state here in Australia, but this does not in any way diminish the recognition we give the Queen today for our appreciation of her life of duty, her role in Australia and in the family of the Commonwealth. Today, we join together in that community of nations that we now know as the Commonwealth as we pay tribute to Her Majesty for the extreme dedication with which she has served. When she made that very famous speech in South Africa, Princess Elizabeth spoke of her aspiration that the Commonwealth would grow to be 'more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful influence for good in the world'.

It is also worth remembering that the Senate and the House of Representatives do not stand alone in our parliamentary system of government. Our own Senate Odgers advises us that parliament is 'a collective entity' consisting of the Senate, the House of Representatives and the monarch. So, in making this address today, we are also recognising the direct connection we have to the sovereign through our position as elected representatives in Australia's system of government here in the Australian Senate.

We particularly acknowledge today the way in which Her Majesty has maintained her engagement with our country, especially through her visits, perhaps most famously in 1954, when she became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia but also on many other occasions such as when she opened this parliament house in 1998 and, through my own personal anecdotes, her visit to Western Australia in 1979—150 years since colonialisation—and, indeed, CHOGM, in Western Australia as well. We've seen, as a nation, her humanity, standing with us in our own times of hardship even as she has endured her own. As the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Albanese, said earlier today: 'It is possible that we can be a republican nation and still have the deepest respect for the Queen.' The Queen has done her duty. She has done her duty with vitality, integrity, humanity and even with the slightest sense of humour coming through at times as well.

The opposition joins today with the government and other senators to express our sincere congratulations to the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee. We extend our very warmest regards on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The British monarchy is a racist, colonial institution. It is a relic of the British Empire, and it shouldn't exist. But, sadly, here we are in this chamber discussing a motion to congratulate yet another monarch on whatever anniversary it is now.

We are in a moment in history when millions of people are marching to make black lives matter. Statues of slave owners are being torn down, and attempts to decolonise the systems are gathering pace. But these motions serve as a painful reminder to people of colour like me, who migrated here from a place that was colonised, ravaged and looted by this very British Empire. It is another of too many brutal reminders to First Nations people here in this country who live, to this day, in colonial Australia that not only is colonialism is alive and well but that its institutions are still celebrated and cherished here.

The British Crown sits on massive amounts of wealth that are the direct result of the theft of resources from colonised territories, the slave trade and occupation. The imperial colonisers ruthlessly extracted natural resources from the colonised countries to fill their coffers and feed their power and greed. This extractive, capitalist relationship is always predicated on taking more and more. In South Asia, where I come from, it was primarily the taking of resources; in Australia, it was the bloody possession of land and culture. Colonialism is not something of the past—something that is no longer relevant. The deep depravity of what was wrought may never be repaired. In many ways, colonialism has been merely transformed into the extractive and exploitative global corporations that control vast swathes of the world. You just have to look at the unabated extraction of coal and gas from sovereign land in this country.

There is nothing to celebrate here. The terrible legacies of colonial rule here and everywhere cannot be ignored. Almost all the territories occupied by British colonialists suffer to this day from underdevelopment, corruption, malnutrition, hunger and conflict introduced by the coloniser. I think of places like Palestine and Kashmir, where British colonialists created arbitrary borders and where to this day there is immense suffering. Generations of Kashmiris and Palestinians have grown up without the most basic of human rights: to live and to live in peace. They have known nothing but the conflict introduced by the British. There is nothing to celebrate here.

Make no mistake: motions congratulating the British royals moved in parliaments like ours are a celebration of centuries of systemic racism and exploitation by the British Empire. I, for one, will not stand for it. There is nothing to celebrate here.

Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience) Share this | Link to 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.

Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The British monarchy is a racist institution that is founded upon the principle of white supremacy and which exists today in the modern world as a relic of a time when, nakedly and without question, white people bestrode the earth claiming all before them to be theirs and, in the name of that sentiment, in that belief, brought death and destruction upon so many peoples of the earth. In the 21st century, it is the cold, hard reality that this mentality lives to this very day. We need only look to the colonial attitudes of the nation states of Europe, of the United States and, indeed, of Australia in relation to our own region, or to the white people of this nation in relation to First Nations people, to see the continuing existence of white supremacy in this world.

It is an edifice that must be challenged and torn down. That great work, in which so many are now engaged, is hindered by the continual perpetuation of the myth, of the banality, of the British Empire. The British Empire was a cruel and extractive capitalist exercise which took the lives of millions across the world. The hollowed out, irrelevant edifice of the British monarchy which now stands in its place, looming over the continuing so-called Commonwealth, is the inheritor of that bloody legacy. We cannot and should not talk of it in this place without placing it in its context. To do so is to excuse and perpetuate its crimes.

I sit here as a proud member of the Australian Greens, a party avowedly committed to the establishment of Australia as a nation under treaty with its First Nations people. If, as part of that process of treaty, of truth-telling, of justice, it decides to take its place alongside the nations of the world that've cast off the moniker of monarchy and proclaimed themselves a republic, then that is what we believe that this country should be. One of the very many reasons that I believe that that is a course that we should take is that I am a democrat. I believe in democracy and that core democratic tenet that power is only legitimate when it is derived from the willing consent of the people over which that power is exercised. The reality of the British monarchy is that its power, in the absence of treaty, is illegitimate on this soil and has never been established according to key democratic principles. Sovereignty has never been ceded, and so it is the cruellest of jokes that this place would waste its valuable time uttering a sentence in relation to a foreign sovereign.

The last thing I'll say on this issue is as a young person. To young people, the British monarchy exists as a strange combination of two things. Firstly, it's as a strange, continually present reminder of that poison of imperialism which is so deeply imbibed into the heart of this country, a kind of soft sinew back to the deep-seated racism, the very beginning of the proposition of the continent of Australia, of that assertion of terra nullius, that assertion of superiority and the idea that there was a dirt here that needed cleansing. Simultaneously it exists to us as young people—the vast majority of us—as a bit of a joke, as an irrelevant edifice kept alive by the sycophantic expressions of journalists that have lost all rudder in their careers.

So many contributions in relation to the monarchy take the form of individuals that feel they have a personal connection to the monarchy and to the institution when nothing could be further from the truth. The reality of the British monarchy of the 21st century is that it is divided. It is, in many parts of the world, a disgraced institution. When it comes to certain members of that monarchy at the current time, it is on trial for crime. And so there is very little willingness in any part of our community to engage with it as anything more or less than a historical irrelevancy that should be cast off and done away with as part of a process of this country coming to terms with the truth of our history. Rather than hiding in the crevices of the past we should be embracing the wisdom and lived experience of the oldest continual civilisation on this earth, the oldest continuing culture. Embracing that wisdom, that knowledge and that holistic, inclusive conception of sovereignty is what we must do in this moment. We must join the nations of the world, like Barbados and so many others, that have finally, after all these years, stepped forward into themselves and stopped hiding behind an old idea that is grounded in immorality and a set of values that have no place in a modern Australia.

Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I rise to acknowledge Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne of England. Whatever you might think of monarchies, the Queen is admired throughout the Commonwealth and around the world. She has been a beacon of stability and tradition at a time of unprecedented change. When she was born in 1926, she was fourth in the line of succession and it was not believed she would ever be Queen. Her uncle Edward's decision to abdicate in 1936 thrust her father, George, onto the throne, something for which neither he nor Elizabeth had been prepared. Less than three years later, Britain was drawn into a world war in which it would have to fight for its very survival. Like many children her age, Elizabeth was evacuated from London when it came under attack in 1940. She was only 14 years old when she made her first public address on the BBC, speaking directly to the many children who'd been evacuated and separated from their parents. When she turned 18, she insisted on joining the war effort, enlisting in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She wasn't given a special rank in this role, although she had already been made an honorary colonel of the Grenadier Guards. The future queen trained as a mechanic in the ATS, and the word is that she still knows her way around an engine.

Elizabeth came to the throne 70 years ago, in 1952. Her coronation a year later was televised around the world—the first time this had ever happened. At the time, our Prime Minister was Sir Robert Menzies. Scott Morrison is now the 15th Prime Minister of Australia to serve during the Queen's reign. That is fully half of all the prime ministers we have had. The Queen is the first British monarch to reach a platinum jubilee. Few Australians alive today have ever known a time without Elizabeth as the Queen.

What I admire most about the Queen is her steadfast support for democracy in Australia as a constitutional monarchy. The Queen understands her role in this model like few others. The Queen understands it is the Australian people who govern our nation, and she has never interfered in our government or our elections. The Queen knows her history very well and knows that the authority of the Crown has been limited ever since the signing of the Magna Carta, which was in 1215. The last British monarch who tried to interfere directly in parliamentary government, by marching into the House of Commons to arrest some MPs—that was Charles I—started a civil war and was beheaded for treason. His descendants tried to restore the absolute rule of kings and queens, but in the end they failed. The authority of the British people, exercised through their elected parliament, has prevailed ever since. The authority of the people prevails in Australia too, or, at least, it did until this pandemic.

Our constitutional monarchy works well when its democratic principles are followed. This is why I do not support Australia becoming a republic. We are already in charge, not the Queen. We already have an Australian head of state, in our Governor-General. The Governor-General only acts on the advice of the elected Prime Minister of Australia. This system works, and, because it works, there is no need to change it. For those who do support a republic, I have this warning: the political class in Australia will never let you vote for a president; they will install their own president, and you will have no say over it. I shudder to think who might be installed. Let me think—Kevin Rudd, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Fitzsimmons, or maybe Paul Keating? Or let's go with Christopher Pyne! Can you imagine the chaos? There's no need to go down such a divisive road. In a constitutional monarchy there is no division over an appointed head of state. It's a figurehead role by convention, and that's the way it should stay. If any future Governor-General should get it into their head to go beyond this role, they have the Queen's example to show them what a stupid idea that would be.

I thank the Queen for her service to Australia and the Commonwealth and congratulate her on the unique achievement of a platinum jubilee. But I must also make my comments, or my thoughts, known with regard to the bedwetters and the haters. Where would they be, these ones that are complaining and whingeing about the monarchy and the Queen's service to the Commonwealth, if this country had been invaded—as they say, rather than 'settled'—by France, Spain or some other country? Would you have had the same opportunities to migrate here and have the life that you have? Here we have senators on the floor of parliament, such as the Greens, whinging, bitching and complaining about the monarchy. The fact is that it's because of the monarchy—and we are part of the Commonwealth—that you were given the opportunity to migrate to this country. You sit in the parliament now, under the Westminster system, the system under which you were elected, and have a very good lifestyle and a say in your country. It's called democracy.

So don't put out there the factors of why you believe the monarchy has destroyed our democracy, because it hasn't. We became a federation in 1901, voted on by the people in this nation. The whole fact is to push your agenda of what is actually happening in Australia, and you want to hand it back to the First Nations people? I can imagine what this country would look like. I don't agree with it. It comes down to the fact that the people of this nation voted in 1999 against a republic: the politicians' republic—the people who want to take over control and tell the people because they think they know better. I don't think that is right.

So I'm here to congratulate the Queen. I have the utmost respect for her, as do many other people. To raise her family and what might be happening there is not what we're celebrating today or acknowledging. I'm sure a lot of families can look in their own backyards to see the problems they have within their own families. They are no different from a lot of people around the world. Yes, they hold positions and, yes, they are quite well to do, but the fact is that they are still a family. To sit there and criticise this woman who's given her whole life to her country, above and beyond her family and her husband—I admire the woman. I admire her greatly for what she's done. That is called dedication, loving your country and your people and doing the job that you didn't even think you would ever have but took on because of a set of circumstances. So, to the Queen and to those people who believe in the monarchy, let's celebrate her 70 years on the throne and congratulate her. And I do from the bottom of my heart.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We've come to know the Queen in many different ways. We know the Queen as an image. We know the Queen through the passage of time. We know the Queen through her spirit, devotion and dedication. Sixteen presidents of the Australian Senate, 15 Australian prime ministers, 170 Commonwealth prime ministers and numerous presidents and popes—a record of public service that we could only dream of in this place. Indeed, in this Australian Senate, Senator Dodson was just four years and eight days old when the Queen ascended the throne. Senator Molan was just one year and nine months old when the Queen ascended the throne.

In my home state of Western Australia, we've been privileged to have her visit on six of the 16 occasions on which she's travelled to Australia. I like to think that six out of six is the number of times I perhaps stood by the road to catch a glimpse. But, of course, there are a variety of ways to look at this tremendous milestone. We can look at it through the lens of the societal and economic transformation that has taken place before her eyes. We can have a look at the durability of the Crown and the system of government that it has come to represent. We can also look at the subtle evolution of our own political system that has, over this tremendous period, also changed. And, of course, we can look at the Queen through the character of perseverance, devotion and service beyond self.

While today is a very important and auspicious occasion, it's also a very sad one. Of course, the Queen came to the throne only because of the passing of her father, the wartime monarch, George VI. I think it's important that, as we reflect on the virtues of this Queen, we also reflect on the tremendous virtues and, I would argue, tremendous unsung and unrecognised work of her father, George VI, during those bleakest hours not just in the United Kingdom and across continental Europe but, indeed, across the whole world. On the death of George VI, Menzies, in the other place, said that George VI had 'reigned over us with singular distinction, unfailing courage, and the most constant devotion'. When we reflect on the strengths of this Queen, I think we owe much to the fact that she was able to witness at first hand the tremendous contribution of her father and his ability to overcome physical difficulties and distrust in the British establishment. Of course, her father reigned for a comparatively short period of time.

Menzies also went on to say:

We … hope that Your Majesty's reign—

the reign of the new Queen—

may be a long and successful one, marked by the prosperity and progress of the countries of the Commonwealth.

The Queen's reign thus far has been synonymous with prosperity, discovery and scientific achievement. Of course, she's reigned in a world that has become more connected, not disconnected. Menzies could not have imagined how her reign has in fact realised those ambitions of prosperity and progress.

A decade ago, a prominent female, again in the other place, remarked on the Queen:

But beyond the statistics of this reign lies consideration of its quality and character. Today we honour a woman who has conducted herself with utmost propriety and dignity, who has served her people with wisdom, fidelity and an unfailing sense of duty. Elizabeth II has made history and become part of history. Today we honour her indelible place in the story of our nation. And we express thanks for the sense of loyalty and service she has shown as our monarch but also as our friend.

Over the decade since Julia Gillard made those remarks, much has changed, but of course the deep affection of so many Australians has only grown and become more entrenched. So, at the beginning of this Platinum Jubilee year, I am confident that Australians, whatever their political creed and whatever their ambitions for Australia's future form of government—and I remain totally committed to the preservation of constitutional monarchy—can all join together in an act of great unity and great grace in recognising what has been a most remarkable achievement thus far: service beyond self in a way that we cannot identify in any other.

I first met the Queen in my home town of Perth in Western Australia. I was sat on a rug in a school hall in Perth's northern suburbs. I happened to glance up, and there on the wall was a picture. I kid you not—I can still see it now. I think it must have been at the time of the Silver Jubilee, in 1977, which would fit with my early years at primary school. For some unexplainable reason, I've chosen to find in her a great, deep affection and, in my own way, try to live my life in public service as she lives hers: practically, with humility and constantly with grace, and never disturbed by the less gracious comments that might be made about her or around her.

On this great occasion, on behalf of all those Western Australians that share a deep affection for this Queen, like I do, I extend to her and all those that support her across the world our deepest affection, our congratulations and our very best wishes for what we hope will be an outstanding Platinum Jubilee year.

Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand here today as a proud First Nations woman. I want to start this speech by saying the sovereignty of these lands and waters was never ceded, and it was certainly never ceded to the person that today's motion is about.

The devastating impacts of colonialism are still experienced by First Nations people across this continent every single day. The colonial project started more than 200 years ago, and for me it's never ended. It still continues in this country for all First Nations people. It has attacked the heart of what First Nations people have lived under for generations, an ancient culture that has five principles. There is the principle of language and the importance of that. We've seen eradication—350 languages existed pre-colonisation, and we are now down to about 143 languages. There is the land that is important to us. It is our mother—our boodjar, as we call her in Noongar culture. It was removed from us when we were herded into missions and reserves. There is our culture, where our old people were beaten for fraternising with their relatives. There is our kinship, our family groups, our disconnection—it's been heard about in this place, about the royal commission on the stolen generations that have existed here in Australia—and the constant removal of our children. In my state of Western Australia alone, I am 17 times more likely to have my children removed than any other woman in this country. The law that was administered by our old people was replaced by the Westminster law that so many have talked about here.

It is the greatest travesty that First Nations people on this continent are not treated equally in this country. We experience racism. We die decades earlier. And the trauma is intergenerational, is profound and is all caused by one foundational event—that is, the colonisation of this continent by the British Crown. It doesn't need to continue. This is not the end of this story. We know we cannot change the past but we can build a better future, and it starts with healing and bringing people together. But has to be grounded in humility and in seeking justice.

How do we do this? We achieve this together, and we achieve this, as has been so eloquently pointed out by my Australian Greens colleagues Senator Faruqi and Senator Steele-John, through a national treaty—an internationally recognised framework. Australia lags behind in relation to the way it treats its First Nations people but also in how it enters into these agreements, these treaties and a national treaty with First Nations people here.

As a recognised international leader, we have a significant role and responsibility to undertake this. Our journey to treaty involves truth-telling. This truth-telling will provide us with healing. We have to hear the stories and the lived experience of the generations of people who have been removed from country, who have been removed from their kinship connections and who have been removed from their language and culture. We have to hear that. We have to know that there is a black history attached to Australia's history and stop celebrating this facade. Our journey also involves making sure that we tackle the systemic discrimination and racism that exist in the system still, that are at the heart of colonialism.

The Australian Greens have already announced that we will begin this journey towards treaty by contributing $250 million to establish a national and independent truth and justice commission. This truth and justice commission will be an independent body that investigates and reveals past wrongdoings to resolve ongoing and historical conflict and to help us all heal from those things and continue this journey forward together. The commission will have the powers of a royal commission and will investigate and reveal wrongdoings and the human rights abuses perpetrated against First Nations people since colonisation and to this day.

This country needs to do better, because we know we can do better. We just need the courage and the political will to make that change. Together we need to explore, understand and reckon with our past and the impact it continues to have on First Nations people and their cultures so we can build that future together, walk that path together. The only way we can do that is to start here, in the Senate, the place of the people. And we can do it through a national treaty and treaties with First Nations people.

Slade Brockman (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further contributions, I will close this debate. I wish to join in acknowledging the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Our federation—indeed, this chamber—is 121 years old, and she has shared 70 of those years. Most Australians know no other way than the sacrifice and quiet acceptance of a role she did not choose but has inhabited without complaint and with unerring grace for all her life. We join in commemorating this moment with the community of 54 nations that we know today as the Commonwealth.

Her Majesty has been with us in person for some of the defining events of our nation. Her Majesty opened the Opera House in Sydney in 1973; in 1980, the High Court of Australia; and, in 1998, this building. Her Majesty's visit to open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2011 in my home state of Western Australia was her 16th visit to Australia. We hope to have her example of wise and enduring service for many years to come. I am sure all senators will join me in expressing our sincerest congratulations to Her Majesty and in extending our warmest regards on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

Question agreed to.