Now it’s the King’s Birthday Holiday

King’s Birthday is celebrated for the first time as an annual, national public holiday in Australia. By 2023, this is tedious and repetitive but helpfully reminds us how hereditary monarchy works (goes on and on of its own accord), who the Australian monarch actually is (an old man lacking charisma in mauve PJs with a sparkling crown on his head as well as being Supreme Governor of the Church of England) and how he has been foisted upon our country without consultation. However, it would be hard to find Australians willingly working on a public holiday, even the republicans among us. What’s worse is the myriad of honours handed out on this day connected with the monarch – such an anachronism – even if some people have reinvented their awards as “Australian”, awarded by Australians to each other and therefore OK. The whole system is overseen by the Governor-General, the King’s representative in Australia, while its structure is approved by the King himself so essentially these awards are imperial with several tiers according to “worthiness” (prominent citizens at the top, community workers and volunteers at the bottom) in line with chivalric honours. WfaAR notes that the ARM co-chairs and Deputy Chair openly publicise their imperial titles.This is not a good look nor does it resonate with ordinary Australians. Time for the medals to be put in the cupboard and locked away. We further note that in interview on Sky News and NITV today, co-chair Craig Foster, claims that many people are conflicted accepting such awards due to their association with the Crown, as he himself had been – but accepted anyway. At least he got that far in his consideration of what the awards represent but further action is required.