King Charles III of Australia

I was sitting at the bar in a Sydney hotel and the fellow next to me said, “I was saddened to here that Queen Elizabeth had passed away. She was a great Christian and a world leader. She was loved by millions of people across the world. I can’t believe She has gone. But I don’t understand how Prince Charles has become King Charles III of Great Britain, and, King Charles III of Australia at the same time?”

“Well,” I said, “Australia has a Westminster system of government whereby the head of state is a monarch and so while King Charles III is the King and Head of State of Great Britain, He is also the head of state of 14 other countries, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Because we are an independent country our system of government has its own monarch as head of state. King Charles III is our new Head of State and King.”

“Independent? I didn’t think we were ‘independent’!”

“Yes, Australia has had a completely independent government for more than 70 years. In fact, the British government was trying to get rid of us, so to speak, since 1849. In 1846, the Earl of Grey became Secretary of State for War and the Colonies but by 1849 the constant letters, complaints and bickering by the colonies in Australia was driving him mad. He asked the Privy Council to come up with legislation to give the winging colonies more independence. In 1850, the Australian Colonies Act, called An Act for the Better Government of Her Majesty’s Australian Colonies, was passed by the British Parliament. The Act affected each of the Australian colonies and soon led to the formation of separate colonial governments. During the 1850s, New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia were given constitutions to run their domestic affairs – which the States still have today.

The next Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, Sir John Pakington, in continuing the desires of Earl Grey to see the colonies move toward federation and get out of Britain’s hair, urged the colonies to consider adopting the Canadian model but the Australian colonies liked their independence and weren’t about to give up power to a national government. By 1870, all British troops had been withdrawn from the colonies anyway. It wasn’t until the 1890s that the colonies started to consider federation seriously. In 1900, the British Parliament passed the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act and we adopted a system of ‘responsible government’ whereby the governor general is responsible to both the legislature and the monarch.”

“But that sounds like we were independent yet weren’t really independent, doesn’t it?” asked the fellow

“Well, sort of. We were still linked to Britain as the governor general and the governors of the states were appointed by the monarch. But remember that Australian’s were deeply patriotic and thoroughly devoted to their monarch and culture that runs back for a thousand years. It was ‘our’ history as well as the people living in Canada, New Zealand or Britain, and even America.”

“Yet, Britain continued its efforts to ‘decolonise’ its Empire. In 1926, the Balfour Declaration declared that all the Empire’s colonies were to be considered as ‘dominions’ and that they were to be equal in status, independent but united in a common allegiance to the Crown. Then, in 1942 Britain passed the Statute of Westminster that said that Britain could no longer legislate for the Australian Commonwealth without a direct request from the Commonwealth to do so. When Elizabeth II became Queen of Great Britain, She, at the same time, became Queen of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Solomon Islands and a number of countries. And, She became Queen of all the Australian States, which had, and continue to have, independent systems of government with the monarch as their head of state. Oh, and on January 26, 1949, Australia introduced Australian citizenship. We were no longer British subjects. That’s why we celebrate Australia Day on January 26 each year.”

“Now, just when you thought that it was safe to back in the water and enough had been done to complexly make us an independent country, in 1986, Britain passed the Australia Act, which really just extended the Statute of Westminster, to stop the Australian States from independently seeking British government involvement in their affairs. So, as of today, we can’t become more ‘independent’ than independent.

“Why then, do we still have some people pushing for republican government?” asked my friend.

“People who think we are going to become an ‘independent’ country by becoming a republic, frankly, don’t know what they are talking about. We can’t become, as I said, more ‘independent’ than independent. What they should be asking is ‘would we be better off with a republican system of government than the Westminster system that we have?’ Or, put another way, ‘does the American system of government function any better than the British system of government?’ If the republican movement in Australia thinks that we would be better off amending our Constitution to become a republic, where is the draft rewrite of the Constitution for us to look at? It is really a matter of ‘put up or shut up’”.

“I’ve never seen or heard of a proposed amended Constitution to make us a republic. Has anyone written one?” asked the fellow.

“A few years back, I had a go and earned a PhD with a rewrite of the Australian Constitution to create a republic. But that was at the time we were considering becoming a republic in the 1980s and what we ended up with was the Australia Act in 1986 which severed all remaining legal links to Britain. You see, if the federal government became a republican system, all the states would have to make the change as well and that was never going to happen for two reasons: Money and power. But that’s a topic for another day.”

“Today, however, with the shifting of political and economic alliances across the world, seeking to become a republic and completely severe any link with Britain by dumping the Westminster system of government might be a bad move. I mean, with Britain getting out of the EU, the old alliances of the Commonwealth of Nations are going to become stronger. Britain and America are forming stronger economic and political ties and taking us, Canada and New Zealand into their inner circle. Raising a flag and saying ‘look at us, we’re now a republic standing alone on the edge of the Pacific’ would be swimming against the tide, especially with the threat of China in our region.”

“It sounds like a case of if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”, said the fellow.

“Yes, we might be wise to stick with our Westminster system of government, and, be proud of our history. There may be a few other problems we have with the way our parliaments but that shouldn’t stand in the way of us being proud of having a remarkable history.”

The fellow, still leaning on the bar, turned his head across his shoulder and looked at me for a minute. He rubbed his chin. Then raising himself up, he lifted his glass and said, “Long live the King of Australia,”