Australia always excelled when it came to obsequiousness to the British Crown, but the queen’s passing has pushed monarchists to new heights.
At a reception held for Queen Elizabeth II in Parliament House in 1963, then prime minister Robert Menzies delivered a remarkable speech describing the queen as the “living and lovely centre of our enduring allegiance” and himself as “prime minister — your prime minister, ma’am”, before closing on the words, “I did see her but passing by, and yet I love her ’til I die”.
The obsequiousness radiating from that speech has powered a lot of monarchist thinking in the country ever since. Since Elizabeth passed away last week at the age of 96, that cohort has been coping as well as one might expect.
Tony Abbott lead with a piece in The Australian which argued: “Probably not a single death in human history will be as widely felt as that of Queen Elizabeth II.” Which is a pretty wild sentiment for someone who believes Jesus Christ sacrificed his life to atone for the sins of humanity. Nick Cater, Australian columnist and Menzies Research Centre executive director, marvelled at “the eternal miracle of the Crown” and closed with another Menzies quote:
Discussion about this post