A man on a throne wearing a crown and carrying a sceptre, who got the job by birthright alone and pledging allegiance to the Church of England is not a symbol that our modern, progressive, secular nation can be proud of, writes Marina Go, General Executive Member of the Australian Republic Movement.
On Saturday May 6, Australia’s Head of State will be transported in a stage coach gilded in gold from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey where his coronation will take place. For the majority of Australians it will be the first coronation of an Australian Head of State in our lifetime.
The Westminster Abbey website offers a guide to the coronation service. The guide outlines five stages to the coronation process, which I have summarised below.
1. The Sovereign (our Head of State) takes an oath to govern faithfully with justice and mercy, uphold the Gospel, and to maintain the doctrine and worship the Church of England.
2. The Archbishop anoints the Sovereign with holy oil on the hands, breast and head.
3. The Sovereign sits on the Coronation Chair dressed in robes of gold, is handed an Orb and Sceptre and crowned.
4. The Sovereign then moves to sit on a throne that has been specially made for this event. This signifies that he has taken possession of the Kingdom and peers will kneel before him.
5. The Sovereign receives Holy Communion, slips on a robe of purple velvet, exchanges the heavier St Edwards crown for the lighter Imperial State crown and then exits carrying the Sceptre and Orb.
The Coronation will take place on the other side of the world because that’s where our Head of State lives. England is his homeland. His head, his heart, his priority.
King Charles is our nation’s highest office bearer and because he is also Britain’s head of state he does not, and will never, put our nation first.
I can’t think of another leadership position or governance structure in Australia that would tolerate such a conflict of interest.
The Australian business community understands the challenges of conflicted leaders and the messages that sends to stakeholders.
We are all stakeholders of our nation and I, as a stakeholder, want to know that the person who sits at the very apex of our leadership would put the interests of our country and our people above all others. We can’t even hope for that when our Head of State is the King of England, who has pledged loyalty to England above all else. Above Australia.
We deserve better from our Head of State.
For Directors and Officers to fulfil our fiduciary duty we must be able to put our organisation first. King Charles is inherently conflicted and, unless we become a republic, every family member that follows Charles into the role of our Head of State will be similarly conflicted.
Australia prides itself on the opportunities that are available to all of its citizens, where innovation has been born from struggle and having a fair go has helped you get somewhere. A Constitutional Monarchy is the very antithesis of our Australian way. Our monarch is born into the role.
The symbolism of the Coronation should be the very jolt we need to put an end to a relationship with the Crown that is way past its use-by date.
At a time in our nation’s history when the inequities of the past are being called out and stomped all over and when cost of living and affordable shelter are priorities for most, the sheer expense of the event — estimated to be around 100 million pounds — should make Australians squirm.
The business community has spent the past decade helping our nation move rapidly forward. We have not only put culture and diversity on the agenda, many organisations are now linking outcomes in these areas to remuneration.
The business community advocated for marriage equality and has policies and procedures to remove any form of harassment from the workplace. Many companies have reconciliation action plans that continue to be invested in. We have largely embraced the Uluru Statement from the Heart collectively and the Voice to parliament individually.
A person sitting on a throne wearing a crown made of gold and the jewels pillaged from nations conquered, and who achieved that position as a result of birthright alone, is not a natural representation of our country today.
The symbolism stands in contrast to a nation that is increasingly embracing equal opportunity for all, where we are increasingly reconciling with indigenous communities, where an increasing percentage of our number are linguistically diverse, where your starting place in life should not be an indicator of or prohibitor to the life you dream of having.
The pomp and pageantry of the coronation will be viewed by millions of Australians. It will be a spectacle, in the way that Game Of Thrones and Succession are spectacular television. But none of it bears any resemblance to our way of life. Thrones, crowns, birthright. Such things are an irrelevance to an egalitarian nation such as Australia.
The relationship between the Crown and Indigenous Australians is complex and painful. We are courageously facing our difficult past and leaning in to the invitation from our First Nations people to walk with them in the next phase of our nation’s development.
Australia is moving swiftly towards true independence, sweeping aside the last vestiges of colonialism as we move closer to a Voice to parliament.
We are increasingly multicultural, uniting more than 300 cultures, faiths and traditions. A man on a throne wearing a crown and carrying a sceptre, who got the job by birthright alone and pledging allegiance to the Church of England is not a symbol that our modern, progressive, secular nation can be proud of.
We have come of age and are acknowledging that it is time we moved out from under the symbols of our colonial past and all that it represents, to fully embrace our democracy, forge our own unique national identity and live our values of equality and inclusivity as an Australian Republic.