Philip Benwell, MBE

Petition to the Prime Minister

The King is expected to make his first visit, as King, to Australia in October 2024.  He will be in the region to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Apia, Samoa, which commences on the 21^st of October. 

The Australian Republican Movement, which is supported by the government’s Assistant Minister for the Republic, has already commenced their campaign using the Royal visit as an excuse to undermine the Australian Constitution and to attack the King. 

This means that the government will have extended an invitation to the King whilst, at the same time, through its very own Assistant Minister for the Republic, be engaged in a concerted attack on His Majesty  and on his position as King of Australia.

It is an untenable situation and one which should not be allowed to continue. 

We urge all who agree with this to sign the below letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to extinguish the office of Assistant Minister for the Republic.  After all, its only purpose appears to be expending taxpayer monies so as to lend support to the Australian Republican Movement.

THE PETITION

The Hon Anthony Albanese MP
Prime Minister of Australia
PO Box 6022
House of Representatives
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

Prime Minister,

The taxpayer-funded position of an Assistant Minister for The Republic has never been appropriate. It is even less so as a visit by the King of Australia Charles III is anticipated. The position needs to be abolished.

As our Prime Minister you will be welcoming our King whilst using the people’s money to actively fund a minister whose task is to assist a cause which would see the tried and proven constitutional monarchy abolished in favour of another politician and all the uncertainties that will bring. The incongruity of this position is glaring. It will not be missed by our fellow Australians or the world community.

Our democratic Australian history records that the Australian people voted for a constitutional monarchy both at the foundation of our nation in a series of referendums in 1898-1900 and again in 1999.

The undermining of our stable system of constitutional monarchy by a taxpayer funded assistant minister is a repudiation of the will of the Australian people as expressed by them in earlier referendums besides being a misuse of taxpayer funds.

It would be an opportune moment for a display of leadership and recalibration of priorities for you to abolish this superfluous ministry as we enter 2024. With a host of issues including the need for stability in our institutions and cost of living pressures the Australian people would be most welcoming of this saving and refocusing on the things that matter.

We the undersigned therefore urge you to extinguish the portfolio of Assistant Minister for the Republic.

Yours sincerely

The 2023 National Conference

The 2023 AML National Conference

THE OPPOSITION & THEIR PLANS
Why we are mobilising now

An interview by the CEO of the Australian Republic Movement on Sky News

THE AML NATIONAL CONFERENCE
18 November 2023

 The Programme

Introductory comments: 

SECTION ONE
Moderator: Mr Jack Barton (Chairman - UQML)

SECTION TWO
Moderator: Mr Christopher Jones (AML VIC YM)

SECTION THREE
Moderator: Mr Patrick Kenny (AML WA Convenor)

https://youtu.be/esz1w9yZ4yE

Mr Michael Kroger

https://youtu.be/Fph7uQLoZNE

SECTION FOUR
Moderator: Ms Laura Malota (AML NSW Convenor)

Mr Tim James MP

SECTION FIVE
Moderator: Ms Rachel Bailes (AML Vic Convenor)

https://youtu.be/L65TClQU1eY

Mrs Beverley McArthur MLC

Monarchists Excited at King’s Australian Visit

The Australian Monarchist League is delighted to learn that King Charles III, King of Australia, accompanied by the Queen Consort, will be visiting Australia in October 2024.

This will be the first visit of King Charles as sovereign and we trust that the Australian and State governments will not restrict people being able to come out and welcome their new King as they did 70 years ago for the then new Queen, Elizabeth II.

The visit will also be His Majesty’s first time, as King and head of the Commonwealth, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to be held in Apia, Tuamasaga, Samoa from the 21st to the 25th of October.

Hon. Eric Abetz
Australian Monarchist League
Email: [email protected]

2023 Conference Auction

THE AUCTION WILL BE HELD DURING THE 2023 AML NATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON SATURDAY 18 NOVEMBER 2023
IF YOU WILL NOT BE AT THE CONFERENCE WE CAN ACCEPT ONE-TIME BIDS BY EMAIL TO:
[email protected]
YOUR BID WILL BE HANDED TO THE AUCTIONEER ON THE DAY

EMAIL BIDDING WILL CLOSE AT 12 NOON ON FRIDAY 17/11/23

PLEASE SPECIFY THE LOT NUMBER & DESCRIPTION OF THE ITEM YOU ARE BIDDING ON


You can access the Conference page here:

2023 AML National Conference

Exclusive King’s Birthday Fundraising Auction

The AML is proud to present a fundraising Auction exclusively to its Members to celebrate the birthday of King Charles III, King of Australia on 14 November. It is difficult to believe that it has been over a year since the passing of our late sovereign Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of The King, whose years of dedicated service have amply prepared him for his role as sovereign. This auction offers a group of rare royal items from two reigns which are destined to become treasured heirlooms. Not only is this a special opportunity for Members to acquire impressive and beautiful pieces of historic royal memorabilia, it ensures that vital funds can be raised to enable us to face the upcoming republic campaign.

Our Auction marking the Coronation of the King and Queen was a great success, and we are sure that our Members will dig deep and bid generously once again, with a range of tempting Lots across all price points!

The Auction opens on Wednesday 1 November 2023 & closes on Tuesday 28 November 2023. Please ensure that enquiries and bids are submitted by Tuesday 28 November 2023 at 5pm AEDT:  [email protected].

A Petition Calling on the Government to appoint an Independent Umpire over the ABC.

We, the undersigned: 

- Noting the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s appalling breach of its own Charter and community expectations in the coverage of the Coronation of King Charles III by what is, after all, the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster;

- Noting the expressed massive public outrage at the ABC’s coverage of the Coronation; and

- Noting the ABC’s high-handed and dismissive attitude to the thousands of complaints received over its coverage of the Coronation. 

HEREBY respectfully request the Australian Government to urgently amend the legislation pertaining to the ABC to ensure a truly independent ABC Ombudsman (or Inspector-General) is appointed to deal with the ever-growing number of complaints the ABC receives about its bias and general conduct.

Signed:

Sky News article on the Uluru Statement

This is a Sky News article by Alexander Voltz providing an analysis of the Uluru Statement and accompanying documentation obtained under Freedom of Information from the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA). 

You can see the accompanying documentation on this website at: Uluru Statement Supporting Documentation

Alexander is Deputy Chairman of the Queensland Branch of the Australian Monarchist League.

The spaces in the news article relate to implanted videos which did not copy into the PDF document.

The Uluru Statement with accompanying documents

This is the PDF of the Uluru Statement with accompanying documentation obtained under Freedom of Information.

(When loaded click the popout sign in the right hand corner.)

Rule of Law Video on the Voice Referendum

Below is a YouTube video produced by The Rule of Law Education Centre on 'The Constitution and the Upcoming Referendum.'

The ABC Coronation Republic Broadcast

Below are copies of the communications between the Australian Monarchist League and the Chair of the ABC, Ms Ita Buttrose. 

The ABC - Correspondence with the Chair,

The ABC Coronation Republic Broadcast

Volunteering for the AML Office

THIS IS FOR SYDNEY RESIDENTS - VOLUNTEER GROUPS FOR OTHER STATES WILL BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY

AML has a new office and we need people to help man it as well as assist in the preliminaries of our campaign against a republic.

If you live in Sydney and can volunteer or to offer your services in other ways, it would be appreciated if you would complete the survey below.

Thank you

Regarding the Departure of Stan Grant

Stan Grant’s Departure from the ABC

Racism in all its forms is to be abhorred and condemned. So it is with any attack on Stan Grant based on the grounds of his race.
The condemnation rightly directed at Stan Grant for abusing his privileged position as an ABC employee to hijack the coverage of the historic coronation broadcast nevertheless stands.

Australians were rightly appalled at his commandeering of the occasion of the coronation of the King of Australia for his gratuitous and outrageously jaundiced monologues seeking to lay the blame for every perceivable injustice at the feet of the Crown which should somehow be held responsible for events over two centuries ago.

Viewers of the ABC were rightly expecting their tax payer funded national broadcaster to provide an unbiased factual broadcast explaining the rich history of the coronation parts of which date back one thousand years. All the commercial stations did so as did the ABC’s equivalent in the BBC. Why couldn’t the ABC?

Address to the Victorian Parliament

Statement On The Coronation Of King Charles III
by
Beverley McArthur MP

The opportunity to speak in the Victorian Parliament about the Coronation of King Charles III was important.

The coronation assembled a diversity of people and places from across the globe. Leaders and volunteers were equals in the observance of a service of solemnity and celebration.

The coronation marks the crowning of our Head of State. Our parliament has affirmed its support of the King and in so doing, the success of our existing constitutional arrangements.

Constitutional monarchy works. It survives and thrives not just here but across the world – and not just in times of peace and plenty but under stresses of economic crises, war and emergencies which cause many other forms of constitution to collapse or to morph into totalitarian rule, despotism and dictatorship.

Of course, it would never happen here, especially in Victoria.

New Zealand, Canada, the UK, Belgium, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and others support a constitutional monarchy. They work very well.

It works not just because the monarch sits above democracy, or overrides it, but because an external figurehead provides a safeguard and a defensive mechanism which tempers the excesses of ego and demands for short-term expediency which electoral politics create. It represents stability and guards against the excesses of individual power which have led to the downfall of so many previously legitimate governments.

It is almost a paradox.

It is in the lack of direct executive power that our ceremonial head of state strengthens our constitution. Parliament retains and remains the ultimate power with our faith placed in the collective wisdom of elected MPs. Our system does not invest itself in the individual ego of an elected head of state.

Naturally, the most likely types wanting that power, the recognition, are politicians. Can you imagine President Rudd, or President Turnbull?

Our current appointed Governors and Governors-General understand their roles of service. They are from diverse backgrounds, far more so than Prime Ministers and elected Presidents. In Victoria, for example, the last three holders of the office have been immigrants and children of immigrants.

In our Constitutional Monarchy, no individual is granted a position which undermines the legitimacy of Parliament and those directly elected by the people.

We should be proud of King Charles and our constitutional monarchy because it works. We are an independent, sovereign, successful nation and we owe the bulk of that to constitutional monarchy.

We have more to do as a nation, and no system is perfect. But we would be wrong to say our success isn’t extraordinary.

Half of our current population was born overseas or has an overseas-born parent. We are defined not by race, religion or culture but by shared values of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and equality of opportunity – a fair go. Some days we are better at it than others.

Our constitutional monarchy works in an Australian way, born overseas but forged locally to fit like a national glove. This successful, stable nation has not evolved by chance or mistake; it has evolved precisely because of our existing system. It is not perfect – but it is frankly speaking – pretty bloody good.

King Charles will be a great King. He has learned from perhaps the greatest Queen. Her dedication was superlative.

This is a King who loves Australia – was schooled here, has been her 16 times and even wanted to buy land here – a decision rejected in case it caused envy in other Commonwealth countries.

King Charles will be a great representative of a great system.

Long live the King.

Addresses to the Parliaments

Here you will find a number of Addresses made in the Federal and State parliaments congratulating Charles III on his coronation as the King of Australia.

The Victorian Parliament

Monarchists Pursue ABC Through FOI

The Australian Monarchist League has made a formal FOI request under the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act (1982) (FOI Act) which provides a right to request access to certain documents held by the ABC in regard to its pre-Coronation broadcast. Details of the League’s request are included hereunder.

Former Senator, the Hon. Eric Abetz, now chairman of the AML No Republic campaign, has stated, “The outpouring of public outrage at the hi-jacking of the coronation by the ABC, which was completely out of step with every other broadcaster including the BBC, requires a full disclosure as to how this pitiful turn of events was allowed to eventuate at the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster.

“This freedom of information request will expose the twisted thinking and those responsible for this unprecedented and unprincipled takeover of what should have been a factual commentary on an exceptionally historic occasion. The commandeering of the broadcast into a monologue of everything that might be wrong with our great country and then depositing it all at the feet of our constitutional monarchy was both blatantly absurd and an abuse of the occasion.

“Any delay or obfuscation by the ABC hierarchy relating to this request for transparency will be met with similar public outrage and do even more reputational damage to the taxpayer-funded broadcaster.”

END

Paying for an AML Event

Petition to the ABC over its Coronation Program Attack on the King & The Crown

ABC CALLED UPON TO APOLOGISE TO AUSTRALIANS FOR ITS BIASED COVERAGE OF THE CORONATION 

This is a petition to the Board and Management of the ABC calling upon them to apologise for its biased coverage of the coronation of King Charles III with a demand that such hi-jacking of a significant historical event never be allowed to occur again.

‘The historic and momentous occasion of the crowning of Australia’s King was not an opportunity for elements within the ABC to pursue their pet topics and tortured view of history without even trying to provide a semblance of balance. The taxpayer deserved better as did the reputation of the ABC that has a strict charter by which to abide which was flagrantly disregarded,’ said AML Campaign Chair, Eric Abetz.

‘Nothing less than a full independent inquiry into the circumstances of this highly inappropriate hi-jacking of the broadcasting of the coronation is required. This was history in the making. History was unfolding before our eyes with a gathering of world leaders second to none. Instead of celebrating the occasion and informing viewers of who was arriving and their position and the traditions associated with the various elements of the coronation viewers were subjected to a diatribe of monologues by ABC personnel peddling their pet subjects backing each other’s views. Knowing there would be a huge audience for the coronation it appears the occasion was deliberately used to pursue an agenda to denigrate the constitutional monarchy which has served Australia so exceptionally well for well over a century.’

‘The universal feedback received has been that the ABC has done itself irreparable damage but some of its tattered reputation might be salvageable with an unequivocal apology and inquiry to fully expose the circumstances which allowed for this significant occasion to be so derailed,’ Mr Abetz said.

We appeal to anyone who was outraged by the ABC coverage of the Coronation to please sign the petition below which will be sent to the Chairman and Board of the ABC in the form of a public letter.

To the Chairman and Board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
700 Harris St, Ultimo NSW 2007

We the undersigned call upon the Board and Management of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to:

1. Apologise to the taxpayers and people of Australia for the manner in which the coverage of the coronation of Australia’s King Charles III was presented;
2. Acknowledge that the coverage presented was in clear breach of the ABC’s own editorial standards which require independence and integrity together with impartiality;
3. Acknowledge that the coverage was not fair and honest in its dealings on the occasion of the coronation, also in breach of its editorial policies;
4. Acknowledge that the behaviours outlined above have substantially undermined the trust the viewing public may have had in their taxpayer funded national broadcaster;
5. Discipline and counsel those ABC staff members responsible for this outstandingly bad decision to hi-jack such a momentous and historic occasion; and
6. Ensure that such an egregious abuse will not be repeated by holding an independent Inquiry.