Why did the Queen not visit Sydney, asks Peter Coleman in Spectator Australia 29/10?
He answers
"The best suggestion I have heard is from Adam Creighton of the Centre for Independent Studies. When the itinerary was being planned last year, the Labor government of NSW knew that it was heading for catastrophic defeat in the coming election and that Barry O’Farrell would be Premier by the time the Queen arrived in October this year.
"So to spite the horrible O’Farrell and deprive him of favourable publicity, it made no serious case for Sydney to be included in the itinerary. Petty but plausible.
I thought it had been the greater need of Brisbane and Melbourne. Both states had suffered terribly from natural disasters. And then there is the legitimate interest of the other capitals.
We Sydneyans – I can never bring myself to say Sydneyites or even Sydney-siders – Melbournians have it all over us – tend to see the city as the defacto national capital, which is excessive. Hobart and Adelaide also missed The Queen, to say nothing of Darwin.
What a problem it is to reign over a federation. But imagine if the United States had not broken away.