“All hail the prez.” This headline over a letter in the Sun Herald on 11 March 2007 caught our eye. Ron Barnett of Lakemba, NSW, wrote: “A recent visit to the NSW Parliament was a shock. Not only has the huge and beautiful picture of the Queen been removed, so have all else. The waIls inside are bare. If this is a result of 12 years of Labor rule, what can we expect of another four? Pemaps a portrait of "President" lemma somewhere inside.”
One of the pettier examples of creeping republicanism, the portrait was moved to a part of Parliament where the public do not have access on the grounds that the sunlight might damage it. But the painter says he took the light into account when he painted it.