Senate Squabble Over Mentions of Queen Elizabeth in Legislation

Australia is still to tidy up references to Queen Elizabeth in 31 federal laws including the ACT and Northern Territory self-government laws requiring parliamentarians to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen even though she died in 2022 and was immediately succeeded by her son Charles as our Head of State. It is not entirely clear why this bill was put before the parliament as the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 operates so that references to Queen Elizabeth II are construed as references to the present sovereign Charles III but it has already been on the legislation list for 10 months. Coalition Senators made a fuss about this bill when it was first presented and insisted they could not support it until the change had the personal support of the king or his representative, the Governor-General. The Government had to confirm that the new Governor-General had been briefed on the bill. It was due for debate again on 9 September but other more important legislation took precedence so there it sat until guillotined through in the Senate’s final sitting week of the year. All in all, a storm in a teacup and a waste of the Senate’s time but one occasioned by the fact that, while we remain a constitutional monarchy with a foreign Head of State, such conundrums will continue for the foreseeable future. It also raises the question about why legislation was drafted and passed with direct reference to a specific British monarch instead of using the generic term “sovereign”. It also raises questions again about the ability of the British monarch – or his representative – to veto legislation at the royal assent stage or disallow it within 12 months after royal assent is granted by the Governor-General (s.58, 59 and 60 of the Constitution). [“King Charles III caught up in Senate squabble over replacing mentions of Queen Elizabeth, two years after her death” by Courtney Gould, ABC online, 8 September 2024]