…The Art of the Possible and the Australian Crown…
Someone once said that politics is the art of the possible, something Australian monarchists have come to understand. All monarchists must ask themselves a few questions and give some honest answers:
Do we want the survival of the Crown?
Do we understand the character of the realm in which we live?
Can we accept the character of the realm we live in?
Are we prepared to present the monarchy in a way that makes sense to our own peoples?
For my part, having defended the Crown in Australia since 1988, I have come to the very firm opinion that the monarchy must connect with the people of Australia in an Australian way. Australia has developed its own history and relationship with the Crown separately and differently from the UK, Canada or New Zealand. This is not to say we deny the British heritage of the monarchy, yet we must embrace our own heritage with it.
Let me explain my own feelings about the monarchy. Whilst watching the TV series “A Year with the Royal Family”, I found that there are many things about the pomp and ritual around the Sovereign in Britain that I find strange and silly. It is not that these things are strange and silly, it is just that they are alien to me and my understanding of the Crown. I have grown up in a country that does not have Barons, Lords and lots of pomp. We just have the lone figure of the Queen. For us that is the monarchy, that and our Governors and Governors-General. When our Queen came to Australia we had our own Australian dignified yet low key events.
The diversity across the countries that call Elizabeth Queen is fine and makes the Crown strong. In my view, trying to push a very British idea of the Crown on countries like Australia is a mistake. Again, if I can paraphrase: “keeping the Crown is the art of the possible”.