E&OE.
Your Majesties, Prime Minister, former Prime Ministers, Governors, Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
It’s a great honour to be here today and on behalf of the Federal Opposition, it is a privilege and a pleasure to welcome Your Majesties to the Australian Parliament.
Your Majesty, our King:
Your 17th visit to Australia is truly special for Australians.
Not only, of course, because it’s your first visit as our King, but also because it’s testimony to your recovery.
We hope your spirits have been lifted by the response that you’ve received so far, yesterday in Sydney, and today at the War Memorial and indeed here in this hall in this eclectic gathering.
People have had haircuts, people have shined shoes, suits have been pressed and that’s just the republicans.
As we know, Your Majesty, you are a most welcome guest in this country.
And we hope that your spirits have been lifted by the response.
We also know that your own spirit has been strengthened by the constant support of your wife and Queen.
Your Majesty, our Queen:
Of the many qualities Australians see in you, there is none stronger than the love you have for your husband – your King.
Upon your return home, Your Majesties, I know you will convey the Australian peoples’ well-wishes to the Princess of Wales.
From the beginning of her reign, Queen Elizabeth knew that the path to modernity lay not in the emphasis of the people serving the monarch, rather, on being a monarch who tirelessly serves the people.
We were honoured to pay tribute to her great life in this very hall.
And today we acknowledge that her dedication to duty carries on – in her son, in her daughter-in-law, and in the Royal House of Windsor.
Your Majesty:
It’s been 58 years since a somewhat shy boy bounded-down the airstairs of a Qantas jet on his first trip to Australia.
As the Prime Minister mentioned before, your time at Geelong Grammar’s Timbertop campus was transformational.
Australia is proud to have played a part in forging a prince.
And I want to acknowledge your late friend and history teacher – Michael Collins Persse – whose mentorship helped mould a prince of patience.
If Elizabeth was the Queen Australia came to know, you, Your Majesty, are the King Australia already knows.
And we know your long-standing connection with the Australian Defence Force.
I join with the Governor-General and Prime Minister in congratulating you on your appointment to the highest Honorary Ranks in our Navy, Army and Air Force.
Your Majesties:
Your visit reminds Australians of our connection to Great Britain.
Of that ‘happy, swollen, distance-obliterating pipeline of people and ideas and goods and services’ – as a former British Prime Minister aptly put it.
Your presence here happily reminds Australians of all the things we love about Britain.
Austen and Shakespeare. Churchill and Darwin. Queen and Doctor Who. Cricket and rugby. And, of course, tea and pints.
But far more importantly, your presence here reminds us, as Australians, of our great British inheritance – of those features which have helped to forge a new nation:
Representative democracy. The Constitution. The Separation of Powers. The Rule of Law. The English language. Freedom of speech, of association, of the press. And so much more besides.
We should never take our British inheritance for granted.
Australia has benefitted from the stability of a democracy with the Monarchy as our bedrock.
Through times of peace and war, constitutional and parliamentary crises, good times and bad, Australians have known stability and have taken confidence knowing that there are better days ahead because our institutions are protected and underpinned by the independence and stoicism of the reigning Monarch.
Your Majesties:
We welcome you to the Parliament with great appreciation, admiration and affection.
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