Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Hansard source

I can't understand why the current government doesn't realise, as the previous speaker said, that the 20-cent coin has on it a lady that lives in England. What in heaven 's name is a lady that lives in England doing on a coin 7,000 kilometres away, or whatever we are. This is rather curious. If I were a person visiting Australia, I'd think there's something weird about these people. I tell you, there is something weird about us.

When the federal cabinet was advised that if the Japanese took Port Moresby there would be no way we could stop the invasion of Australia, it was decided to give all of Australia to the Japanese except Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, maybe. And all the rest was to be given to the Japanese because there was no way we could stop them. In actual fact, the southern army was made up of about 50,000 Japanese soldiers—great soldiers, who had never been defeated in 800 years of land warfare. They were on their way here—they'd landed in New Guinea and they were 10 days away from Port Moresby, and the federal cabinet had been advised that if they took Port Moresby they'd have air cover over Northern Australia, and there was no way we could stop the invasion of Australia. So we were to give up all of Australia, and take a little narrow strip of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, and try to defend that. Now, hold on a minute—there were 50,000 Japanese coming at us, but we had 60,000 troops. Where were our troops? Where was our army? Our army was defending the Libyan Desert in Africa. With the Japanese 10 days away, our government had its army defending the Libyan Desert in Africa and Singapore—a port with no ships in it. What the hell were we doing defending that?

That is a product of that coin. We have not grown up as a nation. We are far from growing up as a nation. The ALP has fallen well short of the mark, which I think my formidable colleague over here would like to have said, but because he is in a party system, he can't. For heaven's sake, get rid of the affirmation that we believe that all people are free and equal. If you've got a monarch on your coin, you do not believe that all people are free and equal. And in every Constitution in the world—the American, the French, the Japanese—they start off by saying, 'All men are created free and equal with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.' They all start in that same way. It would be a hypocrisy for us to start that way!

Everyone who comes to this place swears allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, with one exception. I didn't, and I never have. In my 51 years in politics I've refused to swear allegiance to a foreign monarch. I'm an Australian. My father was a great royalist—he was a bit of a warrior; he liked arming and all that sort of thing—so I don't come from a family that has that Irish rebel background. No; I don't. But you know I do read history books, and the history of monarchies is a very dark history. For 100 years Britain and France just tore everything out of that country in the Hundred Years War. It was brought to a close by Saint Joan of Arc, a little 19-year-old girl, but after 100 years of continuous warfare.

Monarchy would be one of the most diabolical examples of rulership in the history of the world. All of them are ambitious. Take the First World War. What was it about? Cousin Nicky didn't like Cousin Willie, and Cousin Willie had an inferiority complex with Cousin Georgie in England. That was really what it was about. And have a look at them! Tsar Nicholas is playing chess while Moscow is under the control of the rebel communists. He's sitting playing chess and writing a letter to his wife. If you want to choose the word 'moron' I think that would be a fairly good description. They were inbreeding over a period of centuries. His cousin had a withered arm from inbreeding over a period of centuries.

I love this one: Princess Diana's brother said, 'We are the rightful rulers of England.' He said: 'This mob are on the throne because they could not find one monarch, out of the 54 monarchs in Europe, that was not a Catholic.' They were all Catholics, so what were they going to do? They found this little duchy in Germany, the ruling class, and they said—I'm quoting Diana's brother—'Oh, this is an interesting fellow. He claims to be a king. He's not really a king, but he claims to be a king. George is his name. So tell us about this George.' 'Well, he's a certifiable imbecile. He should be in a lunatic asylum.' The ruling class said, 'Well that's good.' Mind you, I'm quoting Diana's brother. 'That's good. He's a certifiable imbecile.' His grandson thought he was a teapot; he used to go and pour himself out all the time. This is what you're taking as your monarch, as your ruler?

It doesn't finish there: 'He cannot speak a word of English and doesn't intend to learn the English language.' And the ruling class said: 'That's excellent. That's really good.' 'And he's not going to live in England.' 'Perfect! Put him on the throne straight away!' In actual fact, what Diana's brother said was true. That's really what happened.

The current bloke, in my opinion he has the morals of an alley cat. He's treated his wife appallingly—

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