Wednesday, 19 June 2024

 David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (09:56): I would like to speak briefly about the King’s Birthday. I like a day off as much as the next person; a paid day off is even better. I have no argument with a long weekend to kick off winter. But seriously, is there a sillier reason for a public holiday than to celebrate the non-birthday of the king of a foreign country? The monarchy, even with the public holiday thrown in, is well past its use-by date. Our head of state is not an elected representative of our nation or even an unelected representative, someone who may have got the gong on merit. No, he is an old multimillionaire who was born into it and, not counting his brief stay at a private school outside of Melbourne, one who has barely spent any time here. And really, notwithstanding the day off, for most Australians the British monarchy has no relevance. There has to be a better reason for a long weekend in June than to celebrate the King’s birthday. Why don’t we celebrate one of our own? What about Eddie Mabo? He was actually born in June. Better yet, we could become a republic. And if you still really, really want to celebrate King Charles’s birthday, you could always just send him a card.