Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

It is a great honour to be able to stand in this House and pay my respects and the respects of my electorate, the electorate of Wannon, to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. On behalf of my electorate, can I say to King Charles III and his extended family: our thoughts and prayers are with you, at this time.

It is a show of the importance and the respect in which the Queen was held that two prime ministers, on either side of the political spectrum, thought that it was warranted that she should have her title enacted in law, here, in this parliament. The first was Sir Robert Menzies and the second was Gough Whitlam. The change in that title, under the Royal Style and Titles Act, gives you a sense of the type of person the Queen was. In 1953 Sir Robert Menzies enacted a title and then, in 1973, Gough Whitlam thought that it needed to be updated. It needed to be updated because that title needed to divorce state from church. It also needed to give primacy to the Queen's sovereign rule of Australia.

When Gough Whitlam put this to the Queen, she agreed because she understood that it was the will of the Australian people that this change should be made. But not only did she agree; she wanted to be the person who signed the act, here in Australia, in 1973, when she visited for the opening of the Sydney Opera House. So she went to Government House, here in Canberra, and signed that act. She did it because she understood the primacy of democracy, the importance of democracy, and she also understood that as sovereign she needed to obey the will of the Australian people. It also showed her humour, because at the lunch, after the signing of that act, one Australian rather impolitely said to her, 'Congratulations on becoming naturalised, Your Majesty,' to which she smiled. It showed her willingness to understand that unique Australian sense of humour.

The Queen left a mark that I think no other world leader will ever leave on Australia. When she visited the electorate of Wannon in 1954 she went to Hamilton, then a population of 5,000. Seventy thousand people came to Hamilton that day to see the Queen. The people of Portland were so upset that they weren't included in the visit that they complained bitterly. That old rivalry between towns was alive, well and truly, then. So what did Her Majesty do? In 1970 she visited Portland. It just shows how she knew and understood this nation and wanted to make sure that she represented everyone she possibly could.

Her sense of dignity, her sense of duty, her sense of service, in many ways, epitomises what is so great about our own nation. Every time you see fire, floods or cyclones, what is it that we are reminded of? It's that sense of service, that sense of giving to others, that sense that self is not as important as giving to those around us. She led us in that, and she epitomised it in every act she undertook over 70 years of service.

I never met the Queen, and I would have loved to have. But one thing we share in common is a love of the psalm 'The Lord is My Shepherd':

Goodness and mercy all my life

Shall surely follow me,

and in God's house forevermore

My dwelling place shall be.

Thank you, Your Majesty, on behalf of my electorate, on behalf of the nation, for everything that you have done. May you rest in peace.

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