“The queen is dead, long live the king.
My colleague spokesperson Alessandro Rosini woke me up with these words in the early hours of Friday morning. We had been on a conference call with available members of the National Council of the Australian Monarchist League until around 3am, by which time the changing of the guard had been suspended and the media were already contacting us for comment. I had gone to bed with my phone ringing for when it happened. So after hearing those words, I just said, ‘Long live the king’, hung up and fainted.
I slept terribly for a few more hours until my alarm clock went off at 6:00. I was lying in this ditch of sweat, which still seems unusual; anyone from Brisbane will never forget the utterly abysmal start of the ninth day of spring. It was a cold, rainy morning, and the sky was horribly dark. It was as if even the skies above Queensland were in mourning.
At 6:30 a.m. I was dressed in black and talking via Zoom at ABC News Breakfast. As Michael Rowland questioned me, I remember thinking how sensible it was to shed my tears the night before. Neither I nor any of the League spokespersons can afford to crack. We have a job to do now. To this end, His late Majesty’s legacy of sacrifice has been an inspiring model in my mind.
By 10:00 a.m., I’d purchased a real black suit and found time to post a brief tribute on Facebook:
“A great lady has passed today from her kingdoms into a higher kingdom, and with her departure everyone is poorer; a family mourns its dearest mentor, a Commonwealth mourns its wisest counsel, and all people in their hearts know that our Queen’s majesty, bravery, and service will reign immortal.
Fast forward to now. Between the Six of Us, Australian Monarchist League spokespersons covered dozens of interviews across a plethora of outlets and platforms, here in Australia and overseas. In addition to his many media appearances, Alessandro, 21, is virtually solely responsible for the League’s press releases and social media. He just produced a new video, Elizabeth the Great, Queen of Australia in which he, other spokesmen and members of the League pay their respects to the late Her Majesty. His foresight and endurance invigorated us all.
Alessandro and I were talking last night about the magic of constitutional monarchy. “Yes, one reign is over, but another has begun. This is the magic of our system. I am more optimistic now, perhaps than ever before, for our institution, democracy and the king.
Although she juggled her responsibilities as a mother of two young and beautiful children, 29-year-old Rachel Bailes was equally adamant. A seasoned spokesperson, she served on The projectFriday with Lisa Wilkinson across from her. Under all the circumstances involved, I regard Rachel’s appearance that night as the pinnacle of courage.
Because you have to remember that there is also some general anxiety in all of this. On live television or radio, you may falter when asked a question you’d rather not answer. You could be misunderstood or misdescribed. In a pre-recorded statement, a less polished response may be used in the final cut, rearranged, or taken out of context. i’m actually sure The project tonight in a pre-record (unless the lineup changed), and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t apprehensive. Ultimately, the only thing we spokespeople want is to be honest in our speech and provide interested Australians with mature and thought-provoking feedback. In the words of Rachel, I truly believe that we strive to be “diligent and self-forgetful” servants, just like Her Majesty.
Jarrod Bleijie, 40, who was a spokesman and life member of the Australian Monarchist League long before he was Deputy Leader of the Queensland Opposition, yesterday launched a private petition for Brisbane’s Cross River Rail project to be renamed The Elizabeth Line.
“Renaming the project is a wonderful way to remember Queen Elizabeth II,” says Jarrod. “It would also be a fantastic opportunity for the Royal Family to come to Queensland and officially open the Elizabeth line, just like the Queen did earlier this year in London.”
Social media suggests the support to opposition ratio for the Elizabeth line is 3:1. This figure is roughly consistent with Roy Morgan’s recent poll, which found that 60% of Australians want to retain the constitutional monarchy. If you would like to sign Jarrod’s petition, please do so – I know he would appreciate your efforts.
Twenty-year-old Jeremy Mann performed a very useful but unforeseen function: a somewhat untimely European vacation accidentally put him in another time zone. Jeremy has already spoken to the UK and German media, giving his fellow spokespersons just that extra bit of sleep. He even travels to London to represent the Australian Monarchist League – as well as the millions of Australians mourning the passing of our Queen – at Her Majesty’s funeral.
When I mentioned how lucky the League and the nation had been for his travels, Jeremy said: “Like so many others, I feel a great sense of loss. But I also feel optimism when I reflect on the wonderful life Her Majesty has led, and the support that has been garnered for our new King, Charles III.
Eric Abetz, 64, chairman of the recently announced Vote No Republic campaign, is expected to join the Q+A panel tonight. I encourage you all to log in; I just have a feeling he might be the only monarchist in the episode!
Eric and I agree that the effortless transition from His Late Majesty to His Majesty King Charles III demonstrated the stability and certainty of our enviable constitutional monarchy.
‘Yet,’ Eric notes further, ‘those who would destroy our tried and tested system have shown themselves at their destructive, negative and insensitive worst side by using Her Majesty’s sad passing to personally denigrate her and our system of government.’
And God knows he’s not wrong. Adam Bandt only gave us five hours before he called for the republic. Mehreen Faruqi referred to Her Majesty as “the ruler of a racist empire”, and Lidia Thorpe went so far as to use the term “our oppressor”.
Meanwhile, college campuses failed to lower Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags, the Australian Football League’s women’s competition ironically refused to observe a minute’s silence, business leaders lambasted the principle of a holiday to mourn Her late Majesty, and an action is underway to prevent Her Majesty’s effigy from replacing that of the Queen on our five dollar bill.
I even know of a case where students at the University of Queensland threw a party on campus to celebrate Her Majesty’s passing. Not to mention that the university’s student newspaper, financed by the students obligatory union dues, actually wrote an article titled “Goodbye Queen of Nothing, Really” which included the following:
“This sickening show of solidarity with one of the wealthiest people on the planet, who literally inherited his title and wielded little real authority or power, appears to be nothing more than a collective delusion or mass hysteria We are supposed to believe that a person whose whole existence was based on being a purely symbolic and empty symbol of the British nation, was somehow “extraordinary” or that ‘there is in any way that her life of idle luxury can be compared to the vast majority of humanity… In reality, the ex-Queen was nothing out of the ordinary. Her whole life was an example of the banality of evil, of a person whose personality and agency were absolutely irrelevant to history.While the ex-Queen presided over countless symbolic events and as head of state of several nations , all its role and social position – the immense assets of the Crown Estate, valued at over £15 billion, for example – has been and will continue to be based on the monarch’s complete inactivity. The monarchy as an institution is nothing more than a monument to social parasitism, to the concept that immense wealth and privilege belong to a few due to divine rights while the majority of us cope with whatever we can.
I am truly amazed when I read such vitriolic propaganda, and my heart truly cries. I have always been so grateful, so honored to have lived under the reign of our great sovereign and in the Commonwealth of Australia. As someone who has read the story since elementary school, it is simply incomprehensible to me that anyone, let alone somebody suitor study in a higher education institution, might have such superficial and nihilistic beliefs. And it is completely and utterly disgraceful that the administration of the university would allow the publication of such material, material which discredits its former name.
Where is the decency we once cherished and longed for, the seventy years of immaculate decency exercised by our queen?
In these bizarre and uncertain times, His late Majesty’s words reassure me: “When life seems hard, the brave don’t lie down and accept defeat; on the contrary, they are all the more determined to fight for a better future.
The last member of the Australian Monarchist League’s Loyal and Benevolent Media Order wouldn’t want me to mention it, so I won’t. He no longer presents himself as a spokesperson, but you have no doubt heard a lot about him in recent days. He knows who he is; I just hope he knows how grateful we are for his guidance, his resilience and, above all, his friendship.
Monarchists make, I think, the best of friends; after all, one of the fundamental principles of monarchism is loyalty in perpetuity.
I hope there will soon be an opportunity for us spokespersons for the Australian Monarchist League to take stock of what has happened and mourn. I’ve lost count of the number of times Alessandro has said to me, “I still can’t believe she’s not with us anymore. It is a disbelief that I share.
Having had the honor of being the humble and obedient servants of the late Her Majesty Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, our lives have truly changed for the better. We now turn to the fortification of his legacy, his son the king, and the ensuing battles. So too can this be your journey; whatever your identity, situation or beliefs, we invite you to walk with us.
In the words of Simon Armitage: “A promise made and kept for life – it was your gift – for which, here is a gift in return.”
Elizabeth the Great
April 21, 1926 – September 8, 2022
Alexander Voltz is a composer and spokesperson for the Australian Monarchist League.
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