Queensland Royal Succession Law Passes

In one of the silliest disagreements between the Federal Government and a State, Queensland stuck to its guns and quickly passed its own royal succession laws (see 26 April news item).  State Attorney-General, Jarrod Bleijie, said history warranted such a move. “As the Queen of Queensland dispute of the mid 1970s shows, the Government takes very seriously both the state of Queensland’s and the executive government’s ability to maintain its direct connection to the sovereign”.  But the State also compromised in its law and made a request to the Commonwealth to implement similar legislation. Federal Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, commented that the present Queensland Government was only echoing Joh Bjelke-Petersen’s claims to have a direct relationship with the crown but that a Commonwealth law was necessary to give the changes proper effect and ensure consistency: “The Queensland Government is more than welcome to pass its own face-saving legislation, secure in the knowledge that it will have no practical effect”.  The Queensland law was ridiculed by a number of female members of the State’s parliament as it was passed.