ZCZC
BFF-29
AUSTRALIA-BRITAIN-ROYALS-OFFBEAT
Australia MPs ‘trolled’ by constituents requesting Queen portraits
SYDNEY, Aug 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Australian politicians have been inundated
with “tongue in cheek” requests for portraits of Queen Elizabeth II after a
writer uncovered an obscure law allowing voters to request one at taxpayers’
expense.
Under the Constituents’ Request Program, Australians can ask their MPs for
“nationhood material” including a photo of the Queen wearing a wattle brooch
— a gift from former Australian prime minister Robert Menzies — and a pin
featuring the country’s coat of arms.
The Queen is Australia’s head of state as it remained a British dominion
after gaining independence in 1901.
Other material on offer includes the national, Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander flags, “nationhood documents” such as booklets on Australian
flags and national symbols, and a portrait of the Duke of Edinburgh. MPs said
they had not received any requests for Queen Elizabeth portraits — until
Vice’s Nicholas Lord pointed out the archaic provision in an article on
Wednesday.
“Excellent trolling @VICEAU, I do find this to be comfortably the dumbest
part of my job,” tweeted Labor MP Tim Watts, representing the Victorian seat
of Watts Gellibrand.
“But be warned youth of Gellibrand: if you request a portrait of Liz,
there’s nothing stopping me sending you some other ‘material’ in the same
parcel.” The “other material” in his package included photos of retired
Aussie Rules’ Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy and former Australian Labor
PM Julia Gillard.
Watts told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he had received four
dozen requests for portraits of the Queen in 24 hours after the Vice article
was published.
“I think 99 percent were tongue firmly in cheek,” he added.
Another Victorian Labor MP, Ged Kearney, tweeted that while her office did
have portraits of the Queen available, she usually received more requests for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.
The government-funded programme, introduced in 1990, was criticised by
former Greens party leader Bob Brown in 2012, who told parliament that public
money could be better spent elsewhere.
“If there is extra money available, I suggest that it go to ensuring that
Indigenous people in Australia who are being deprived of their first
languages be given an education in their first languages and that we stop
some first languages going to extinction in this country,” he said.
“I think that might have priority. However, if there are members opposite
who cannot find a picture of Her Majesty, I would be happy to provide them
with one.”
The Queen is hugely popular Down Under, although there are some who view
the monarchy as an anachronistic colonial relic. Those pushing for Australia
to become a republic failed to win a national referendum on the question in
1999.
BSS/AFP/IJ/1458 hrs