LETTER TO MEMBERS-JANUARY 2017
If the end of 2016 was anything to go by, 2017 is going to be an extremely busy year for the Australian Monarchist League.
On December 17 2016 Malcolm Turnbull addressed the Australian Republican Movement specifically stating that he was doing so as prime minister. He committed his support to a republic, but he said the support would not be there whilst the Queen is alive and that they would need to wait until her reign had ended. He closed his comments with: “Advance Australia. Up the Republic.” Disgraceful, particularly for a person who has sworn allegiance to the very Queen whose passing he and his ilk anxiously await.
And then, of course, the Queen fell ill.
Both of these occasions meant continuous media interviews and thus no rest over the Christmas break.
Australia Day
Despite the Australian Republican Movement producing an undoubtedly expensive but very amateurish video of various people, rather badly, singing “God save the Queen” and ending with a message that “it doesn’t sound right anymore”, the issue of a republic was, for the first time in many years, not the focal point of Australia Day 2017 nor did the Australian of 2017 use his platform to advocate a republic as General Morrison had done last year.
Nor was it the proposed burnings of the Australian Flag by the Greens and other dissidents. The protest theme for this year’s Australia Day was ‘Invasion Day’ pushed by Aboriginal and left-wing activists. These protesters want Australia Day to be changed to another day as they claim that 26 January was the day on which they were dispossessed. Some say the day on which genocide was commenced by the British.
As far as the proposal to burn the Australian flag is concerned, we released a media release advising that we had written to the State police ministers stating that, as an authorised incineration is an offence, we would expect the full force of the law to be brought upon anyone burning the Australian flag in a public place. Regrettably, it is not an offence to deface or destroy our flag.
I also issued a media release explaining the importance of the raising of the British flag on Australian soil as it symbolised the beginning of modern Australia under the Crown which has evolved into the way of life all in this country enjoy today.
However, I received a number of resignations from members who strongly disagreed with what I said, most stating that if the indigenous people are upset over Australia Day, then we shouldn’t be celebrating it.
And, as far as the republican video is concerned, it seems it was a total flop. Not only did it upset British-born republicans, it also led to an increase in our own membership.
It is such a shame that rather than celebrating the nation we have developed into where all Australians - rich or poor - are equal under the Crown, certain elements use the occasion to incite conflict.
The Blue Sapphire Jubilee
On 6 February, 2017 the Queen will celebrate the 65th anniversary of her accession. It is called the Blue Sapphire Jubilee. No monarch in our shared history has ever had such a Jubilee but nowhere in this country can we see any government or any Viceroy openly celebrating this unique occasion.
I did write to the Governor of New South Wales in December to ask whether he would be able to attend a function to honour this occasion, but no response.
It is such a shame that our intent to properly celebrate this occasion has been frustrated in this manner.
I contacted Bombay Sapphire gin, which bears an image of Queen Victoria, to suggest they do something, but no response.
I also wrote to the Prime Minister to ascertain what the Australian government is proposing to do to celebrate this occasion, but no response.
Republicans & Monarchists Alike Try to Republicanise Our Monarchical System
So ‘dumbed-down’ is the monarchy in this country today. Unfortunately, there are a few monarchists who have been complicit in trying to republicanise our system of constitutional monarchy calling us a ‘crowned republic’.
The Australian Monarchist League in no way believes that we are a republic, crowned or not. We are a constitutional monarchy with a Governor-General who assumes the role of head of state upon appointment by the monarch who is our sovereign head of state, that is if we are to term those who hold the highest office in the land, ‘head of state’.
The fact is, our Constitution does not mention the word ‘head of state’. It does not need to because our governance is under the Crown not under the State. We have a monarch represented by the Governor-General, who for over 50 years has always been an Australian and in any event it is our Australian Prime Minister who has been nominating Governors-General both British and Australian since 1931.
The Australian Monarchist League therefore holds that the Queen is our sovereign head of state and the Governor-General who, upon appointment, assumes that role and becomes executive or effective head of state.
Our system is a system that works as a constitutional monarchy. A crowned republic may refer to the earlier despotic Roman emperors who feigned allegiance to the republic' or more to the two Napoleons: Napoleon Bonaparte who, as First Consul for life, crowned himself and his nephew, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte elected president of the Second Republic (France is now on its fifth), but because the constitution would not allow him to run again, staged a coup d'état and then, like his uncle also crowned himself.
We are nothing like these autocratic upstarts. Australia is a parliamentary democracy under the Crown. The Queen through the Governor-General, together with her judiciary, are a check on the government and above all the people, are a check on both parliament and monarch for it is the people who can remove a government at election and it is the people who can remove the Crown at referendum.
Our system under the Crown works well unlike republics most of which are reliant upon the authority of politicians, as opposed to the will of the people.
Political Upheavals
2017 also portends political upheavals. We have just seen the once popular Premier of New South Wales, the republican Mike Baird, resign and a deal between the left and the right of the Liberal Party being done to push into the premiership the zealous republican Gladys Berejiklian.
Even door-to-door salesmen seem to have a longer job expectancy. The main difference is that these politicians can walk out and enjoy for the rest of their lives huge retirement incomes and taxpayer-funded perks.
It is becoming more and more apparent that our system of democracy is not working as it should. Somewhat reminiscent of “Nero fiddling whilst Rome burns”, adversarial politics overtake actions for the public good and political power games overtake good government.
(Actually, Nero could not have fiddled overlooking Rome whilst it burned because of the first instance he was at his villa in Antium, some 35 miles from Rome and in any event fiddles were not developed until the 11th century A.D.)
With the shambles that our governments have become, it is important to emphasise that it is not our constitution or our Federation that is at fault, but rather the politicking of our elected representatives and their adherents to a politically-correct socialistically inclined agenda put forth by the media.
Government is now ruled by opinion polls and media articles. It seems that the priority of prime ministers and premiers is more one of fear of causing adverse media attention than in actually governing as they should.
It is rare that an independently minded person passes through the gauntlet of party preselections. The lack of the main parties to rise up out of the mire has led to the rise in popularity of parties such as One Nation. In time it could well be that no party is able to govern on its own and would need to negotiate a coalition thus producing a government with disparate policies resulting, possibly, in even less being positively achieved than at present.
I don’t know what the answer is, but what I do know is that the responsibility for the mess we are in can only be laid at the feet of our elected representatives. Thank goodness amidst this downside of our democracy, we have an independent umpire in the Governor-General who, as the Queen’s representative, is able to ensure that no politician oversteps our constitutional precedents and conventions.
Of course, if we had a republic it could only be a republic controlled by politicians whether the president is elected by the Parliament or by the people. This would be like jumping from a frying pan straight into the furnace. It is not a future that our founding fathers would ever have envisaged for Australia.
This is why we, the Australian Monarchist League, are here. To protect our constitution of which the Queen is a part. It is a Constitution of Federation brilliantly drafted by our founding fathers as a result of numerous conventions and committees which took the best concepts of the constitutions of the United States, Canada and Switzerland and moulded it into the constitutional principles inherited from the United Kingdom to produce a uniquely Australian rulebook which in turn has enabled Australia to develop into one of the great nations of the world today.
People appear to be waiting to see what developments the new president of the United States, Donald Trump, will be implementing, other than of course the media who seem to be attacking him en-masse.
However, people like the US President as is the case with the leaders of Russia and China, are able to wield huge power as opposed to prime ministers operating within the Westminster democracy. Our own system is dependent upon our parliaments comprising patriotic representatives, prepared to stand up and voice their convictions instead of squabbling amongst themselves as they now so often do. I am sure that the contempt so many of our politicians show for our system of governance, rather than honouring the allegiance they give to the Crown seeking instead to tear it down, has much to do with the downside of democracy in this country.
Hijab Posters Raises $125,000 in 24 Hours
In December we commenced a crowdfunding exercise to try to raise funds for the printing of several thousand copies of the brochure for schools that had been the subject of earlier newsletters.
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising monetary contributions from a large number of people usually via the Internet and generally using social media. In 2015, it was estimated that over US$34 billion was raised this way worldwide.
I have been sceptical of using crowdfunding because it is more popular amongst small investors and the socialistically active groups rather than amongst conservatives and traditionalists.
For instance, after an Australia Day poster featuring two Muslim girls in hijabs was removed following complaints, anti-racism campaigners launched a fundraiser to pay for the sign to return, collecting $125,000 in 24 hours! Most contributions were in small amounts from thousands of people.
However, even though our own crowdfunding exercise was promoted amongst thousands of supporters, only fourteen responded raising a total of $545 of the $10,000 goal!
Of course, republicans will use this resource to great advantage. We can only hope that our own people are more supportive when we are facing a plebiscite and referendum.
New Branch in London
Amidst all this gloom, some good news. In late April we will be launching a new AML branch in London with a reception in the House of Commons. There are around half a million Australians residing in the United Kingdom many of whom still have voting rights in Australia. With an eye on a possible plebiscite and referendum in the future, it is important that we immediately commence mobilising access to expatriate Australians.
If you have relatives or friends living in the United Kingdom and would like them to attend the reception, please let us know so we can send them an invitation.
Renewals of Membership Via PayPal
A number of members have completed an automatic renewal process via PayPal and we find that some are sending in cheques to renew their membership and then finding that PayPal has automatically debited their credit card or bank account thus meaning that they have paid twice. Whenever this occurs we will always refund the duplicate payment. We have now restructured our database to ensure that we do not send out renewal notices ourselves to these members, but will instead leave that to PayPal. However, mistakes do happen, particularly with such a large database, and we would urge you, if you pay your membership by PayPal to check your account to see whether you registered for automatic renewal, in which event you do not need to do anything.
Online Membership
We have written about this before but it is important to mention it again. The online paid membership at $25 p.a. can only be completed online via PayPal. The online membership was set up to save the huge amount of manual work that needs to be done if anyone pays by cheque. Also, not using the website system often creates difficulties when these members try to access the website.
Also, if members do not confirm their joining by clicking on the confirmation link in the automated email which will be sent to them once they have joined online, they become blocked by the system and then, when they try to later access the website, blame either us or the website itself.
I realise that for many of our members the Internet is not their sort of thing and that is why we still accept payments by cheque or credit card for all categories of membership other than online. After all, if one wants to get everything online, then it stands to reason that payment should be effected online.
The Trump Twitters
As we all know, President Trump takes to Twitter to get his point of view across as the media are so biased against him. Apparently his tweets now reach something like twenty million people! As far as the Australian Monarchist League is concerned, the media, we know, is virtually totally biased towards a republic which is why we have developed a powerful social media networking arm.
It is important that we increase our social media numbers (at present they stand at around 25,000) so that we can get our point of view across to more and more people. Whilst, on a per person basis, networking through social media is inexpensive, in total it does cost a fair amount but is a very important expenditure if we are to continue to promote the stability and security of governance under the Crown Australia-wide.
Remarkable Anniversaries for a Remarkable Lady
Prince Charles will be 69 in November, the Duchess of Cornwall 70 in July and Prince William will be 35, also in July.
As I mentioned on the 6th of February, Her Majesty will celebrate 65 years as our sovereign head of state and on the 21st of April she will celebrate her 91st birthday and on the 20th November she and the Duke of Edinburgh will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary.
Remarkable anniversaries for a remarkable lady indeed.
In the 6th century, after the rule of Rome had ended there lived a philosopher called Boethius. He wrote a number of books, some drawing on the philosophy of Plato and Socrates. One of his books was called ‘The Consolation of Philosophy’. King Alfred the Great was so taken with this work that he had it translated into English which was a huge task for those days. He wrote an introduction to his translation:
“What I set out to do was to virtuously and justly administer the authority given me. I desired the exercise of power so that my talents and my power might not be forgotten. But every natural gift and every capacity in us soon grows old and is forgotten if wisdom is not in it. Without wisdom no faculty can be fully brought out, for anything done unwisely cannot be accounted as skill. To be brief, I may say that it has always been my wish to live honourably, and after my death to leave to those who came after me my memory in good works.”
These are words which could well have influenced the long reign of Alfred’s direct descendant, our own Queen Elizabeth.
May God bless Her Majesty.
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