Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

As the longest-reigning monarch in the history of the United Kingdom, with over 70 years of exemplary service, Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral, aged 96, at 4.30 pm on Thursday 8 September, which was 1.30 am for us here on the east coast of Australia. In the two weeks that have followed, we have witnessed an extraordinary outpouring of love, of respect and of admiration from people from right across the world for Her Majesty—people of all ages, of all nationalities, of all ethnicities. We've also listened in this place and elsewhere to some of the most eloquent of speeches about Queen Elizabeth II, about her life and about her person. And so the small contribution that I make today I make on behalf of the people I represent in this parliament, who are the people of Fairfax, on the Sunshine Coast. With them, I carry a message of deep gratitude and respect to Her Majesty for her service over so many years as not just the Queen of the United Kingdom but also the Queen of Australia.

When Queen Elizabeth II was last on the Sunshine Coast, she opened the CHOGM meeting between heads of governments of the Commonwealth. There she said:

The Commonwealth must move with the times if it is to remain relevant to all generations—

sage advice for the Commonwealth but a glimpse maybe also into how Queen Elizabeth II saw her own role. She had that remarkable ability to, indeed, move with the times and appeal to people of different generations. We saw that probably most famously with her appearance with James Bond at the 2012 opening of the Olympic Games and, my favourite, her sitting across the table from Paddington Bear, swapping notes about where to best hide marmalade sandwiches.

In the spirit of Queen Elizabeth's humour in that regard, I'm sure the House wouldn't mind me recounting what a constituent of mine told me had happened on the Saturday morning when her family woke up to the front page of the paper with a large photo of the Queen due to her passing. The lady's little boy excitedly pointed to the photo and said: 'Mummy, she's famous. That lady's famous. She's met Paddington Bear!' This is the sort of humour that you can picture Queen Elizabeth herself appreciating. Indeed, she was able to therefore appeal to and move with the times.

For me, that was a reflection of an innate humility that she possessed as a human being—a humility that said, despite being born into a royal family and despite being the sovereign of so many nations, including our own, she recognised the need to change and to adjust. It was a humility that was also reflected in her style of leadership. For her, she did not have a job to execute but a vocation to live—a vocation of service. But, so much as Queen Elizabeth II may have indeed moved with the times, that's not to suggest she ever swayed from her core values—values that included the importance of family and the importance of faith.

On a personal level, as I think of her passing—and over and above the role that she has had in our world and in our country—I think of her own values of family and faith. I celebrate the thought of her being reunited with her love in heaven, Prince Philip.

See this speech in context