Thursday, 10 February 2022

Queen Elizabeth II platinum jubilee

Mr ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (17:31): (6214) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action that I seek is for the Premier to provide me with a program of Victorian government events marking the occasion of Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee. On 6 February this year, just a few short days ago, Her Majesty the Queen became the first British monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of Australia and to the commonwealth. And 6 February 1952 of course was a day of great sorrow for Her Majesty, as the event that led to her ascension was the death of her father, George VI. Years before that day, on her 21st birthday in a broadcast from South Africa, Her Majesty stated:

I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service …

More than seven decades on we can say that Her Majesty has in every way been faithful to that vow. Her Majesty is an example of public service simply unrivalled by others. Throughout her years of service she has put others before self whilst conscientiously and joyfully carrying out her duties. She has also been a steadfast, unifying and stable presence in the life of our world and the life of our nation as Queen of Australia. I fondly remember her October 2011 royal tour, which included a visit to our federal Parliament. On the day before her arrival I placed an order with a Kingston florist for a bouquet of native flowers. After a reception in the Great Hall, I waited for Her Majesty to return to her waiting car and presented her with this bouquet. She remarked that the flowers were beautiful. The bouquet, however, was wrapped in netting, which got caught in Her Majesty’s lace shawl. As she was untangling the bouquet’s netting from her lace she quipped, ‘But a little sticky’, to which I replied, ‘You’re welcome, Your Majesty’. I was not sure what else to say. To borrow a line from Thomas Ford’s poem There Is a Lady Sweet and Kind, famously referenced by Sir Robert Menzies, ‘I did but see her passing by’.

In March 2000 Her Majesty paid her 13th visit to Australia following the 1999 referendum, where a majority of Australians voted to retain Her Majesty as our head of state. In the first speech of that tour she said:

… since I first stepped ashore here in Sydney in February 1954 I have felt part of this rugged, honest, creative land. I have shared in the joys and the sorrows, the challenges and the changes that have shaped this country’s history over these past fifty years.

It is my sincere wish that Her Majesty and her successors will continue to play an ongoing, meaningful and vibrant role in the life of our nation for many decades to come and that those of us in this place who put service ahead of self take example and courage from Her Majesty as we strive to serve our own communities. Long may she reign. God save the Queen.