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The Forum > Article Comments > It is time for Australia to grow up > Comments

It is time for Australia to grow up : Comments

By Peter van Vliet, published 21/6/2005

Peter van Vliet argues there are many positives about being in the Commonwealth, but retaining an hereditary monarchy is not one of them.

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Crown the institution
The Royal succession of Queen Elizabeth to Queen of Australia does not make Australians subjects of the United Kingdom or under British law. Nor do Canadians become citizens of Australia by swearing allegiance to Queen Elizabeth. Australians like Canadians, New Zealanders and Papua New Guinea do not swear allegiance to a British monarch but to the Queen of their Country. The people of Great Britain swear allegiance to the Queen of Great Britain, not to the queen of Australia. The Queen is sovereign of several separate countries each with it’s own crown. The Queen Elizabeth II is not exclusively Queen of Great Britain. The Queen of Australia does not act as a foreign Queen though she may reside in England. The High Court ruled in 1999 in the Sue V Hill case that though the person is physically the same person her office as Queen of each separate sovereign State are not the same legal person.

When we swear allegiance to the Crown (Queen of Australia), it represents the Westminster system of government of the people, the laws enacted by the Head of State, and the subjects under that crown. To merely swear allegiance to the people of Australia is a nebulous concept because "thepeople" could represent subversive and diverse systems of law and power.

The Globe and Mail newspapers polled 70,000 Canadians recently: should they retain the Queen as head of State, and the result was to retain the Queen in an 82% to 18% landslide.
Posted by Philo, Saturday, 2 July 2005 9:31:03 PM
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Ironically, the republican movements of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom are now actively working together.
They have so much in common that they share tactics on how to do away with one of the symbols of what they have in common.
Posted by Ian, Sunday, 3 July 2005 3:36:38 AM
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