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The Queen's complicated relationship with multicultural Australia
During Queen Elizabeth II's reign, Australia transformed from a country with a 'whites only' migration policy to one of vibrant multiculturalism. But mixed attitudes towards the monarchy remain as Charles becomes king.
Published 10 September 2022 12:24pm
By Dijana Damjanovic
Source: SBS News
Image: Dana Pham believes a British head of state provides stability. (SBS News / Dijana Damjanovic)
Australia has undergone immense change since a 27-year-old Queen Elizabeth II first toured the country in 1954.
The newly-crowned queen was the first reigning UK monarch to visit and she was met with adulation. Three-quarters of the population stepped out at least once during that time to try and catch a glimpse of her.
But the White Australia policy — legislation designed to keep Australia effectively British — was also in play, meaning more people who lived here at the time had cultural ties to the British Isles.
The Queen and Prince Philip wave to the crowd during their visit to Australia in 1954. Credit: Fox Photos/Getty Images
Not only do Australian crowds look different today, and bring more variety when it comes to food and language, but their cultural background can influence how they think about having a British monarch as Australia's head of state.
Anita Prabhu was born into an Indian republic and migrated to Australia 43 years ago.
When she became an Australian citizen, she was required to swear allegiance to the Queen, even though members of her own family fought against the British during India’s independence movement.
"There was quite a lot of cruelty, there were signs at clubs that said: "Dogs and Indians not allowed," she said.
"I mean how do you compare that? What kind of statement is that?"
"So, there were many things that leave a very bad and bitter aftertaste of any foreign rule over your people."
Queen Elizabeth greets a crowd at Hobart, Tasmania in 1970. Source: Getty / Central Press
"I just thought British people are just like us, I didn’t think of them as apart and being family friends, I thought that all British people are our friends," Prabhu said.
He doesn’t share his wife’s views on the monarchy.
"I think politically we need to maintain our connections with Britain in order for our security as a nation. So I think on both counts we should hold on to what we have."
Anita believes Australia has already proven itself to be a nation that has relationships with the wider world and that a foreign head of state creates a disconnect.
The Queen receives an Indian shawl during her visit to Singapore in 2006 following a five-day visit to Australia. Source: Getty / Pool/Getty Images
"Being a more mature country that has come of age, I don’t think we need to have a figurehead of a different country as our head of state. I think we are old enough to be a republic, to have our own say and further deepen our own identity."
We are old enough to be a republic, to have our own say and further deepen our own identity.Anita Prabhu, Indian Australian
Dana Pham’s family came to Australia in the 1970s in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.
Her family's suffering under a corrupt republican system of government in South Vietnam has led her to interpret Australia having a British head of state as a representation of transparency and stability.
Dana Pham believes a British head of state provides stability. Source: SBS News / Dijana Damjanovic
"And hence, that’s why they came to Australia, where our head of state isn’t a president, we have a governor-general who represents the Queen, so ultimately, it’s the Queen and she doesn’t get political. She doesn’t impose her political will — in fact, we barely know what her political will is because she barely talks about it."
The Queen's death, which sees her eldest son become King Charles III, has since sparked debate in some circles about whether Australia should now look to become a republic.
"In the Vietnamese community, you don't really hear much debate about whether we should remain a constitutional monarchy or whether Australia should become a republic," Dana said.
"Look at my family, they're very big on the good works and good deeds of the British Royal Family. I think that could be a reflection of the wider community. As you see actions speak louder than words."
'Threat' to monarchy from immigration
In 1966, 12 years after the Queen's first visit, the White Australia Policy was challenged, with legislation changing under then prime minister Harold Holt following a review of the migration system.
Implementation of the racist policy had included measures aimed at keeping potential migrants who weren’t considered ‘white’ out of the country, such as giving people dictation tests in any European language.
The new legislation meant all potential migrants were treated in the same way with regard to visas and could become Australian citizens after a waiting period of five years.
Ahead of those changes, Australia had in 1950 signed up to the Colombo Plan, which was aimed at strengthening relationships between countries in the Asia Pacific region. Part of the plan meant students from countries in the region studied in Australia on scholarships.
Indian farmers on a study tour in Australia as part of the Colombo Plan in the 1950s.
The Whitlam government renounced the White Australia Policy in 1973, replacing it with a policy of multiculturalism. But Australia's commitment to the new policy was soon tested, with the arrival of large numbers of refugees from Vietnam and Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Queen’s palace saw this new wave as a possible threat.
Letters between the Queen’s private secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, and Australian Governor-General Sir John Kerr expressed fears the monarchy would collapse in Australia because of ‘non-British’ immigrants.
"I have been musing about the monarchy as an institution in our part of the world", Sir Martin wrote on December 19, 1976.
"In 1947, 98 per cent [of Australians] were of British stock. By the 1971 census only 88 per cent were so derived."
"Increasingly, but not yet significantly, we have Asians. Most of these, and most who have come from Europe are from republics and are not directly acquainted with monarchy."
He believed that without more frequent visits from the Queen and other royals, a more multicultural country could do away with the monarchy.
A year later, Queen Elizabeth was on an extended royal tour of Australia.
She was received by an adoring nation, with 18,000 school children screaming and waving flags with the Union Jack when she and Prince Phillip got off their plane in Victoria but the relationship over the years became complicated.
University of Sydney political scientist Luke Mansillo said Australian support for the monarchy is now “50-50”.
"Australian support for the monarchy has been quite robust and strong all the way through to the early 1990s ... [now] we are at a crossroads."
His's research paper, Loyal to the Crown, found Australians with British, Irish and Northern European backgrounds are most likely to support the British monarchy in Australia, while people from Asian republics are more likely to derive little meaning from a British, royal head of state.
The idea of a nation at odds with itself is central to Mr Mansillo’s research.
"Migration has had a profound effect on ending white Australia. We were once as [former Australian prime minister] Ben Chifley said: ‘The great continent for the British races in the southern seas’. That is no more," he said.
"Because of that, we have a fractured identity, and it is hard to identify who we are as a people and what we ought to be as a people."
The Queen's death after 70 years of rule, said, will pose a question about Australia's national identity.
"In the short-term, there will be very little that changes in the day-to-day functioning of Australian democracy. However, it will provoke the question: What does Australia want to become? Who are we as a nation? and how can we become a better nation?"
For Anita, multiculturalism is key to Australia’s identity.
"Multiculturalism really is something we are generating in our country ourselves and it's gone beyond just Commonwealth countries in Australia," she said.
"There are many non-Commonwealth citizens who come from other countries, so multiculturalism is far more important than just belonging to the Commonwealth".
Alessandro Rosini’s family migrated to Australia from Sparta, Greece and southern Italy in the 1950s.
His family, like others who’ve fled conflict, looked to the Queen as a beacon of hope. His grandfather passed on stories of the Nazis executing his brother in World War Two.
When his grandmother was seven, she was sent to Switzerland to work and send money back to family in Italy.
A young Alessandro Rosini sitting with his great grandmother, Candida Larobina, who was sent to work in Switzerland as a young child. Source: Supplied
"My family does support constitutional monarchy in Australia because it provides a stable country where they don’t have to worry about sending their children to a foreign country to earn money and send it back, they can enjoy and live a normal life here with their family at peace," he said.
At the time of the Queen's death, she was also Queen of 14 other Commonwealth realms, in addition to the United Kingdom.
Alessandro believes the monarchy is an institution worth keeping.
"As that old ancient chant is shouted across the UK and the Commonwealth, 'the Queen is dead, long live the King.'"
