King’s Birthday Weekend Signals Little

Julieanne Schultz reflects on the first proper King’s Birthday long weekend since the death of our previous Head of State (still gazetted as the Queen’s Birthday holiday in 2023) with a holiday on the Monday for our monarch’s birthday in most of eastern Australia. She concludes it signals little to most except that the country’s independence is unfinished business and speculates, “Maybe it is best to just enjoy the public holiday, dream of the snow, watch a movie and not think about what it represents”. [“The King’s birthday long weekend signals little to Australia – except its independence is unfinished business” by Julianne Schultz, The Guardian online, 9 June 2024]