Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth II has made a private donation to help relief efforts during the floods in Australia. The palace said in a statement on Wednesday 12 January that the funds will go to the Premier of Queensland’s flood relief appeal.
The Queen continues to express her concern about the situation in Queensland. The Queen and members of the Royal Family have always had a particularly close relationship with Australia.
….Victorian bushfires…
In October 2009, after he was received by The Queen, the then Premier, John Brumby told the ABC Brumby that at her request, The Queen had been given daily updates on the bushfires.
"She made a very generous private donation to the bushfire fund," he said.
"Today I presented her to a pictorial diary of the February 7th fires and the recovery that's occurred since."
"I was also able to bring her up to date on many of the great stories that she was interested in. The stories of communities recovering, particularly the Kinglake Football team, the Lakers," he said.
"She was quite taken by the extraordinary courage and determination that they showed.”
Australian Premiers have a right to advise The Queen on certain constitutional issues, a protection to state rights unknown in other parts of the Commonwealth.
But in 1999, with the exception of the Hon. Richard Court, Premier of Western Australia, none of the Premiers seemed to appreciate the advantages and the protection they were advising the people to abandon.
In return the State Premiers were in effect offering to make the federal politicians –in particular a prime minister – far more powerful.
{youtube}sUdm0boEo7M{/youtube}