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

The British monarchy will soon touch down in Australia. This visit is a timely reminder that the stain of colonialism is still with us and of the persisting refusal of this country to detach from this dreadful legacy. Their visit should be a moment for all of us to have an honest conversation about who we are and who we want to be. Do we really want to cling to the British monarchy, an institution built on the stolen lives, stolen land and stolen wealth of colonised people from all around the world?

We know that British colonialism on this land was barbaric. We know that British colonialism caused unimaginable devastation to the Indigenous people of this land. We know between 1794 and 1901 there were at least 300 massacres of First Nations people. There was a colonial genocide of First Nations people. What good does it serve us to celebrate and glorify this brutal past?

First Nations people face the worst of systemic and structural racism and discrimination that has existed since colonisation as their struggle for justice, truth-telling, treaties and self-determination goes on. Being tied to the British Crown is designed as a reminder that this colony was founded on white superiority, like other colonies, to dominate and for the rest of us, Indigenous people of colour and migrants not of white European extraction, to languish in the lower rungs. That is the ultimate desire of monarchists wanting to remain attached to the British Crown. It is to preserve white supremacy and preserve the systemic racist structures that were built by the empire and that persist today. Even in this building the desire to cling on to a bygone, whitewashed colonial era remains.

Racism and colonialism are intertwined, and the monarchy is a symbol of that. Racist structures rooted in colonialism keep Indigenous kids incarcerated at such high rates and keeps police racially profiling people. It empowers the hardline New South Wales Labor Premier, Chris Minns, to crack down on our democratic right to protest when it is people of colour who are protesting. It ties this nation's complicity to the horrific genocide in Gaza perpetrated by another settler colony founded by the British.

Clinging on to British colonialism is not just a stain on our conscience and not just an insult to its targets and victims; it also speaks to this nation's maturity. If we are to claim that we are our own nation then we need to face up to its brutal and bloody colonial past and move forward, not continue to relish it. We must pave the way for Australia to become a republic. Many nations have done that. Barbados did it in 2021, and its then governor-general rightly said, 'The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind.' Well, it's time we did exactly the same.

The British monarchy is losing its relevance year on year. However, a republic which cuts the apron strings from the British monarchy must be one that is decolonised and based on the sovereignty of First Nations. It's time for racial justice. It is time for truth-telling and treaty. It is time we become a republic.

When the royals leave on 23 October, let's give them a final farewell. May the monarchy never return as the rulers of this land.