
Australian government's huge move on Queen Elizabeth II
The way that the parliament goes about its work in the House of Representatives is governed by 'standing orders'. Now, those orders have been amended to remove all references to Queen Elizabeth II – even though it's been almost three years since the Queen's death.
As the British monarch is Australia's head of state, they are mentioned alongside their representative, the Governor-General, in the standing orders.
Labor minister and leader of the House Tony Burke moved an amendment to the standing orders on Wednesday morning that would replace mentions of Queen Elizabeth II with King Charles III.
The Queen was referenced at least 15 times in the standing orders, but all of those mentions will now be taken over by her successor.
Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022, aged 96.
Liberal Party manager of opposition business Alex Hawke accepted the change but said he was 'reluctant' to do so.
'I will say upfront as a lifelong constitutional monarchist and a great supporter of our constitutional monarchy and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, we are still in my view in the official mourning period,' Mr Hawke said.
'We do accept, reluctantly, the changes to remove all references to the Queen from the standing orders and replace them with the sovereign.'
He called it a 'reluctant but necessary change'.
Other changes to standing orders include how long parliamentarians can be ejected from the house and how votes are recorded.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Sydney Morning Herald
6 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
$110,000 payment for union peace: Developer's deal in spotlight amid fresh calls to clean up industry
A gangland associate was paid $110,000 by a Gold Coast developer to strike a deal with the CFMEU's Queensland branch four months after the Albanese government forced the union into administration. The revelation of the Sunshine State deal, along with several other alarming new case studies, has prompted a major public intervention by the federal Labor-appointed CFMEU administrator, who is now urging conservative Queensland premier David Crisafulli to use his planned commission of inquiry into the union to attack the underworld. Administrator Mark Irving, SC, has also demanded the Albanese, Allan and Minns' governments shift their 'focus on crime and corruption across the industry'. The Sunshine State deal involved an attempt by Queensland-Melbourne joint venture Glen Q to secure industrial peace on the Gold Coast and culminated in a meeting between the CFMEU's Queensland co-ordinator Matt Vonhoff and Melbourne gangland associate John Khoury. Construction union sources who have spoken to authorities have confirmed the dealings were uncovered during recent federal police raids. The raids unearthed a money trail linking a front company in the name of Khoury's accountant to Glen Q's 16-level project a short drive from Crisafulli's Gold Coast seat. The sources said that acting as a fixer in the Gold Coast affair was Melbourne construction boss turned Queensland government contractor Nick Maric. Maric has for years had Khoury and his business partner Mick Gatto on a retainer to deal with the CFMEU. Revelations about the case have emerged amid separate details of persistent gangland activity in Queensland and down the eastern seaboard. They include a surge of industry involvement by the feared Comanchero bikie gang, including cases in Sydney and Brisbane, the latter in which a Melbourne Comanchero flying squad flew north and allegedly threatened a CFMEU representative. The bikies were ostensibly working with a security and labour hire contractor subcontracted to national construction giant BMD.

Sydney Morning Herald
6 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
In an electorate that screams privilege, an MP needs to pick a side on the housing crisis
The NSW Liberals face a wicked problem. How does the party walk the political tightrope of being pro-housing at the same time many of their constituents, not to mention local councillors, remain wedded to one word: overdevelopment. As Sydney, and indeed the country, contends with a chronic shortage of homes, no NSW Liberal will feel this conundrum more acutely than Vaucluse MP Kellie Sloane. Overdevelopment, once the mainstay of local campaigning for both sides of politics, has morphed into the politically charged term NIMBYism. On the other side of the argument is YIMBYism, which is becoming synonymous with wanting to fix one of the greatest social problems of this generation. Sloane, a moderate who is seen as a future leadership contender, has the seemingly impossible task of ensuring her party reflects the needs of modern Australia (which, as the federal election showed, the Liberals are failing to do) while representing the voters who put her into office. Examining one of Sloane's biggest obstacles to assuming the leadership paints a good picture of how hard her task will be. A major impediment to securing the top job is not a lack of talent, nor party room support. Rather, it is the name of her seat. No electorate in NSW screams privilege has much as hers. While it takes in areas including Bondi Beach and Edgecliff, Vaucluse – with its sprawling homes – is the antithesis of many other areas of the state, not least western Sydney. And the Liberals know this, so much so that there is talk that when the next boundary redistributions are drafted, the Liberals will lobby to have the seat renamed, perhaps back to Bondi (abolished in 1971) or even Waverley (axed in 1990). Loading Seat name aside, Sloane, a former television journalist turned businesswoman, is keenly aware of the housing challenge she has to face in her seat. How she manages it is a different question. At an eastern suburbs housing community forum last month, Sloane told the attendees that the Labor government's policy to build townhouses, terraces and six-storey apartment blocks within 400 metres of town centres was 'quite confronting'. Sloane singled out Rose Bay as being unfairly targeted, arguing the suburb lacked critical services such as a major supermarket or a train line. Later, after her federal colleague Liberal housing spokesman Andrew Bragg took a veiled swipe at her stance, Sloane said she rejected being labelled a NIMBY. 'I am pro-development,' she said, 'it's a responsibility for every community, but I want a guarantee that it comes with investment in infrastructure.'

Sydney Morning Herald
6 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Secretive Albanese government goes backward on transparency
Labor is hiding information from the public more often than the Morrison government despite campaigning on a platform of integrity, frustrating a critical accountability mechanism intended to maintain faith in bureaucrats and keep politicians honest. Analysis by the Centre for Public Integrity shows Canberra's culture of secrecy has sunk to its worst point in more than a decade, with the proportion of freedom of information requests released in full plunging from almost half in 2021-22 to just 25 per cent under Labor in 2023-24. The government is increasingly releasing documents to the public filled with black ink covering up key sections of text and Labor is more often ignoring Senate votes requesting details on policies and ministers' decision-making. Independent senator David Pocock said the data under Anthony Albanese's watch was shameful compared to the prime minister's predecessor, Scott Morrison. 'To be more secretive than the government of a prime minister who had five secret ministries is something the Albanese government should be deeply embarrassed about and ensure they fix in their second term,' he said. Rejection of freedom of information requests over nine years of Coalition government hovered between 10-18 per cent, but spiked to 24 per cent in Albanese's first term. And the proportion of documents granted in full dropped from almost 60 per cent in 2012 to 25 per cent in the year to July 2024. Official reviews of these decisions to block information found that only 45 per cent of the refusals were made on legitimate grounds, meaning more than half the justifications for secrecy were flawed. Attorney-General Michelle Rowland's spokesperson pointed out that the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner had its funding boosted by Labor, a move endorsed by the Centre for Public Integrity.