13 hours ago
Let's get rid of this embarrassing King's birthday holiday
Polar winds, rain and snow aside, most of Australia is going to appreciate today's public holiday and give little thought to the reason behind it. I'm going to ruin that a bit by stating categorically that it is a ridiculous and embarrassing holiday.
While the US is approaching 250 years of independence, Australia still pauses to celebrate the birthday of a British king, flouncing around in ceremonial garb like the petulant George III in the Broadway hit Hamilton. Only he's not singing 'You'll be back' because we never really left!
For a long time, supporters of an Australian republic spoke with dewy eyes of the day King Charles would finally supersede his mother – convinced that the very sight of the perpetual English prince as king would kick-start the movement once more, and propel Australia relentlessly away from its British colonial past. That has not occurred.
That was another time and place – when there was less to distract us from reality, and more vigorous debate about Australia's history, values, and future. Nowadays, any reference to national debate is condemned as elite tut-tutting.
On Australia Day this year, journalist David Penberthy condemned those who questioned the appropriateness of the date as 'haranguing' the vast majority who just want to 'sit around and have a couple of quiet ones'. He might be right, but what a half-hearted democracy that is: greedily grasping the freedom to celebrate – watching the footy or 'burning a few snags with mates' – without ever turning our minds to how that celebration is generated.
How do we explain to the millions of migrants who come to call Australia home – the backbone of our nation – why it is so culturally important to celebrate a public holiday with mates and beers and snags, and so culturally inappropriate to enquire about the origin of the holiday?
Because, like it or not, today's sleep-in comes courtesy of agreeing to keep an indulged English prince (as he was for 73 years) as your King. The position may be symbolic, ceremonial and relatively powerless. But however you spin it, he is our King, and he is the Australian head of state because of the privileges and status bestowed on him by his people.
Endorsing an unelected, hereditary figurehead clashes with how most Australians want to portray themselves; most importantly, it clashes with the quintessentially Australian idea that everyone is entitled to a fair go – our abbreviated and informal version of the US's 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'.
