Letter to Prime Minister Albanese

Members of the Defence Forces have all sworn allegiance to the Queen and, as such, are required to protect the Constitution and the people. The Governor-General is commander-in-chief as representative of the Queen. (Clause 68. The command in chief of the naval and military forces of the Commonwealth is vested in the Governor-General as the Queen's representative.)

We believe that the combining of the assistant ministries of Defence, Veterans’ Affairs and republic have been done for a reason. We leave it to your imagination to reason why.

Furthermore, the combining of these ministries is an insult to present and past defence personnel and should never have been allowed.

The below letter to prime minister Albanese calls on him to separate these assistant ministries and we urge all those who agree, to sign it and after doing so send the link to all those whom you think would also want to sign.

Thank you

Note: Please limit comments to less than 40 words and be respectful.

Dear Prime Minister

In the lead up to the last federal election on the 21st of May 2022 you specifically took the issue of a republic off the election agenda by inferring that there would be no move towards a republic in the first term of your government. However, one of your first actions as prime minister was to create an Assistant Minister for the Republic. Why did you break your commitment and make such an appointment without a mandate from the people? The fact that a republic is part of Labor Party policy is not relevant as far as a mandate from the people is concerned because you took it off the table.

Despite not having a mandate, on the 1st of June 2022, you arranged for the Hon. Matt Thistlethwaite MP to be sworn in as Assistant Minister for Defence, Assistant Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and Assistant Minister for the Republic.

We put it to you that to include the portfolio of the Republic alongside that of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs is a direct slur on the many brave men and women who fought and are fighting for this country, all of whom have pledged allegiance to the Queen and to many of whom a republic is an anathema.

We request that you abolish the Assistant Ministry for the Republic or if you decline to do so that you either remove the Republic ministry or that of Defence and Veterans’ Affairs from Mr Thistlethwaite.

The portfolio for a republic should never have been associated with Defence and Veterans’ Affairs in the first instance.

Yours faithfully

1,258 signatures