Speaker 1: From Schwartz Media on Daniel James This is seven am.
Speaker 1: King Charles's first visit to Australia as monarch laid bare
Speaker 1: a lot of unfinished business. Moments after the King sat
Speaker 1: down after finishing an address to parliamentarians and other dignitaries
Speaker 1: in the Great Hall in Parliament House, Independent Senator Lydia
Speaker 1: Thorpe was escorted out of the hall after approaching the
Speaker 1: King while shouting you are not our king and this
Speaker 1: is not your land. It didn't just bring home the
Speaker 1: fact that, despite a failed republic referendum in nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 1: having unelected an unaccountable head of state is still a
Speaker 1: concern for many Australians. It also highlighted that the more
Speaker 1: recent failed referendum on the Voice to Parliament has far
Speaker 1: from settled any of the issues around truth, treaty and justice.
Speaker 1: Today Communists for the Saturday Paper Paul bon Jorno on
Speaker 1: the demands from Australia and other colonies for justice and reparations.
Speaker 1: It is Friday, October twenty five. Paul, good morning, and
Speaker 1: God save the King.
Speaker 2: Yes, God save the King.
Speaker 1: So Senator Laity of Thorpe's comments to King Charles during
Speaker 1: his visit here in Australia. They've made ways, but they
Speaker 1: were hardly surprising. We all know how she feels about
Speaker 1: the monarchy, don't we.
Speaker 2: Yes, we do, and Thorpe's brazen disregard for protocol that
Speaker 2: the royal reception is well, it's hardly surprising given her
Speaker 2: often stated aim to draw attention to the injustices suffered
Speaker 2: by First Australians and by colonial dispossession and the so
Speaker 2: called frontier Wars that saw thousands of Indigenous men, women
Speaker 2: and children killed. While she certainly got the whole world
Speaker 2: talking about these issues, even though she was condemned for
Speaker 2: her rudeness by the Prime Minister and senior politicians from
Speaker 2: both sides, Senator Thorpe did say she put in a
Speaker 2: written request for a respectful conversation with the King about
Speaker 2: the plight of her people, which was ignored. It should
Speaker 2: be noted she didn't interrupt the King, but waited till
Speaker 2: he had spoken, waited till he had completed his address,
Speaker 2: and then she seized the moment of a lull in
Speaker 2: proceedings to stage a demonstration. And what a demonstration it was.
Speaker 2: She hit unresolved issues at the core of our national
Speaker 2: identity and democracy. Thorpe is far from alone in seeing
Speaker 2: the structure of our constitutional monarchy and aboriginal recognition as
Speaker 2: significant unfinished business. A treaty that she demands would be
Speaker 2: an ultimate recognition of the rights and dignity of dispossessed
Speaker 2: indigenous peoples denied to them since Captain Cook claimed possession
Speaker 2: of the continent for the Crown and Daniel. It's not
Speaker 2: a surprise that the royal visit reignited these conversations. Indeed,
Speaker 2: the visit itself sparked a whole new discussion around a
Speaker 2: republic before the King even boughted his first class Singapore
Speaker 2: Airlines flight out of London.
Speaker 1: So he'd done a great job all of describing what
Speaker 1: the deeper issues are in relation to Senator Thorpe's comments,
Speaker 1: but broadly would have been the reaction to her comments
Speaker 1: within the media and elsewhere.
Speaker 2: Well, If the point of any protest is to draw
Speaker 2: attention to a cause and to get people talking, well
Speaker 2: Thorpe she succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. She scored numerous
Speaker 2: media interviews in Australia radio and TV as well as internationally.
Speaker 3: This Aboriginal senator calling out the King for Britain's treatment
Speaker 3: of her people.
Speaker 4: That was the independent Senator Lydia Thorpe making her feelings
Speaker 4: very clear and Lydia Thorpe is with us now welcome
Speaker 4: to Times Radio.
Speaker 2: She even got an interview on the esteemed BBC.
Speaker 3: I managed to ask her what she had done and why.
Speaker 5: I wanted to send a clear message to the King
Speaker 5: of England that he's not the king of this country.
Speaker 5: He's not my king. He is not sovereign. We are sovereign.
Speaker 5: To be sovereign, you have to be of the land.
Speaker 2: Thorpe raised the issue of the crown being responsible for
Speaker 2: a genocide of her people, but what is incontrovertible as
Speaker 2: a number of studies have found of Aboriginal men, women
Speaker 2: and children were killed by British troops and later by
Speaker 2: government forces and the so called Frontier Wars to deliberately
Speaker 2: attempt to eradicate resistance to colonization. And her former Green's
Speaker 2: colleagues backed her. Their protest was to boycott the royal reception.
Speaker 2: Adam Bant, the party leader, says they'll be pushing for
Speaker 2: a Truth and Justice commission to lay the foundations for
Speaker 2: a treaty. And we saw other Aboriginal leaders, for example
Speaker 2: ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People
Speaker 2: Commissioner Vanessa Turnbull roberts Or. She joined the chorus for support,
Speaker 2: but Thorpe's protest also drew condemnation from some Indigenous leaders.
Speaker 2: Marcia Langton, who played a leading role in the Ularoo
Speaker 2: Statement from the Heart, said Thorpe's outburst was quote embarrassing
Speaker 2: and shameful, and she offered an apology to the monarch
Speaker 2: on behalf of First Nations people. Nova Peris, the former
Speaker 2: Labor senator who headed the Republican movement, said Thorpe should
Speaker 2: quit parliament if she holds the institution in such contempt.
Speaker 4: Now she has said that she hates the colony, f
Speaker 4: the colony, but she swears allegiance to the Queen, accepts
Speaker 4: her a simulation. She's gone into the Australian Parliament. But
Speaker 4: she didn't want the voice going into the Constitution because
Speaker 4: that was an act of simulation.
Speaker 5: So which way is it?
Speaker 4: Do you know? It's like?
Speaker 2: And Opposition leader Peter Dunton, well, his comments were even
Speaker 2: more pointed.
Speaker 1: I think there's a very strong argument for somebody who
Speaker 1: doesn't believe in the system, but it's willing to take
Speaker 1: quarter of a million dollars a year from the system
Speaker 1: to resign in principle.
Speaker 2: And now mainstream Republicans except that the British monarch is
Speaker 2: the head of state, but argue strongly that he shouldn't be,
Speaker 2: especially in light of the research of historian Jenny Hocking
Speaker 2: showing our constitution gives the unelected head of state powers
Speaker 2: that exceed the conventions of a constitutional monarchy. The crown,
Speaker 2: according to these conventions, is required not to be party
Speaker 2: politically active in a way that disrupts our democratic process.
Speaker 2: But you'd have to say, relatively recent history shows that
Speaker 2: this isn't always the case, and the dangerous undemocratic precedent
Speaker 2: has been set.
Speaker 1: And that dangerous undemocratic precedent all was, of course, the
Speaker 1: Whitlam dismissal, which was an event that Australians will never forget.
Speaker 1: But time has a way of creating distance. Do you
Speaker 1: think those events still color how Australians view the king
Speaker 1: right now?
Speaker 2: Well, probably not as much as they did, you know,
Speaker 2: a decade ago. But in King Charles we have a
Speaker 2: direct link to the dismissal and the palace's failure to
Speaker 2: caution Governor General Sir John Kerr against his plan to
Speaker 2: deceive his Prime Minister. Well Charles, in answered correspondence from
Speaker 2: the Australian Republic Movement, told them that it's up to
Speaker 2: the people decide. That he's a constitutional monarch and he
Speaker 2: takes his advice from his Australian ministers. But Charles hasn't
Speaker 2: always acted in this way, as documented in historian Jenny Howkings'
Speaker 2: book She knows better than anyone just how involved Charles
Speaker 2: was in the sacking of GoF Whitlam. She was on
Speaker 2: the ABC recently discussing this.
Speaker 3: Kerr describes this in several documents. It's not just the letters.
Speaker 3: He kept a journal in the nineteen eighties where he
Speaker 3: reflected back on key conversations that he'd had both with
Speaker 3: Charles and with the Queen.
Speaker 2: And she spent more than four years fighting the National
Speaker 2: Archives to release the correspondence between the Queen, Charles's mother,
Speaker 2: the Queen's private secretary and the Governor General, Sir John Kerr.
Speaker 3: The great upset is that there are hundreds more, and
Speaker 3: I have been trying for the last three or four
Speaker 3: years to get access to them. And even though they
Speaker 3: are governed by our conditions which say they should be
Speaker 3: open after thirty years. That is nearly two decades ago.
Speaker 3: They are still closed.
Speaker 2: Hackins, says Charles in an extraordinarily improper letter, later told
Speaker 2: Kerb it was just months after the dismissal not to
Speaker 2: lose heart quote. What you did was the right and
Speaker 2: courageous thing to do.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 2: While all royal visits throw some light on the issue
Speaker 2: of a republic in Australia and the role of the monarchy,
Speaker 2: really now that we have Charles as King, there's even
Speaker 2: more edge to it. The royal couple celebrities as they are,
Speaker 2: even though they're old, and I've got nothing against old people,
Speaker 2: we tell you. But they received warm welcomes from respectable,
Speaker 2: cheering crowds, but nowhere near the size of enthusiasm myself
Speaker 2: and other school children showed when his mother first visited
Speaker 2: a as a monarch back in nineteen fifty four, but
Speaker 2: this time with the first visit of a new monarch,
Speaker 2: when Charles and Camilla were greeted by the Prime Minister
Speaker 2: and Opposition leader in Canberra, all the state premiers. While
Speaker 2: they declined their.
Speaker 6: Invitations, Victoria's just seem to Allen absent. South Australia's Peter
Speaker 6: malinowskis absent, saying it's with no disrespect to his majesty.
Speaker 6: Queensland Stephen Miles absent. He's got a bit on. New
Speaker 6: South Wales's Chris Mins absent.
Speaker 2: Western Australia's Premier Roger Cook just vaguely cited that he
Speaker 2: had of the commitments. You'd have to say there's more
Speaker 2: indifference around the crown than ever before. But going back
Speaker 2: to Lydia Thorpe's comments, it's a reminder that the British
Speaker 2: monarch is a world figure at the epicenter of postcolonial
Speaker 2: demands for an apology and reparations in many of the
Speaker 2: fifteen constitutional monarchies still owing allegiance and other former colonies
Speaker 2: in Africa and the Caribbean. Issues that are sure to
Speaker 2: come up in the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Samoa.
Speaker 1: After the break we're to now for the Republican movement.
Speaker 1: Paul Anthony Albanesi is spending even more time with King
Speaker 1: Charles and Queen Camilla as the Commonwealth Heads of Government
Speaker 1: Meeting or Chogham kicks off in Samoa. Can you tell
Speaker 1: me about that meeting?
Speaker 2: Yes, well, the Commonwealth heads of Government is an institution
Speaker 2: at the British Monarq you see as vital to keeping
Speaker 2: them and Britain still relevant in the contemporary world. So
Speaker 2: what we've got in Samoa where the current Commonwealth Heads
Speaker 2: of Government meeting is some key issues are not only
Speaker 2: reparations over issues like slavery, but also our discussions on
Speaker 2: climate change are topping the agenda. Pacific nations are looking
Speaker 2: to use the meeting to draw attention yet again to
Speaker 2: the existential threat of rising sea levels. Interestingly, the Pacific
Speaker 2: island nations particularly have got a very strong ally in
Speaker 2: King Charles on the need for real action on climate change.
Speaker 2: Charles actually went to this in his formal address in
Speaker 2: the Great Hall in Canberra, so nobody can doubt that
Speaker 2: he takes climate change seriously and is urging Commonwealth leaders
Speaker 2: and indeed world leaders are to take it more seriously
Speaker 2: than they have been to date.
Speaker 7: Labor and peas, at least some of them, are putting
Speaker 7: pressure on the Prime Minister to open talks about reparations
Speaker 7: to the Caribbean countries when he visits the Commonwealth Summit
Speaker 7: which has just begun on Samoa.
Speaker 2: On the issue of reparations over slavery. The British Prime
Speaker 2: Minister Kis Starmer has ruled out any formal apology or reparations.
Speaker 2: Apparently Starmer, who is a constitutional lawyer himself, sees a
Speaker 2: formal apology opening up Britain the two claims for billions
Speaker 2: of pounds worth of referations. But still it's clear that
Speaker 2: neither the King nor the British Prime Minister will be
Speaker 2: able to avoid this conversation at the meeting.
Speaker 1: And returning to Australia, Paul, the visit has obviously ignited
Speaker 1: a lot of discussion about the monarchy. So where is
Speaker 1: the republican movement at the moment. It feels like we're
Speaker 1: actually moving further away from a republic strangely.
Speaker 2: Yes, well, there was a bit of excitement amongst Australian
Speaker 2: Republicans when a new Prime Minister, Anthony Alberanizi, had a
Speaker 2: ministry for the Republic. But when the Voice referendum went down,
Speaker 2: he disbandoned that ministry and he put the Republic as
Speaker 2: it were, on the long finger. His people tell me
Speaker 2: that it hasn't been ditched, it's just been parked for
Speaker 2: a while. Albanizi feels that he suffered politically for the
Speaker 2: failure of the referendum, when many people saw that he
Speaker 2: was distracted from their more pressing issues like cost of living.
Speaker 2: When he was asked why it had dropped the portfolio,
Speaker 2: he said he made it clear that there was only
Speaker 2: going to be one referendum this term and he hadn't
Speaker 2: made a commitment to another one. The historian Jenny Hocking
Speaker 2: hopes that should Labor win the upcoming election, ALBANIZI will
Speaker 2: restore the Assistant Ministry for a republic, but I suppose
Speaker 2: in Albanze's favor in terms of keeping faith. In twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, Assistant Minister Matt Thistlethwaite made it clear that
Speaker 2: the success of the Voice referendum would be the trigger
Speaker 2: for moving onto the Republic in a second term. Publicans
Speaker 2: fear it could be another generation before the issue is revisited. Well,
Speaker 2: let's hope it won't be another generation before the issue
Speaker 2: of Aboriginal recognition and reconciliation is revisited and hopefully resolved.
Speaker 1: Well, at this rate, Paul, I think we can get
Speaker 1: out our little flags and welcome King William at some point.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 2: Thank you Bye.
Speaker 1: Also in the news today, supermarket giants Coles and Wilworth
Speaker 1: so they will fight allegations they trick customers with fake discounts.
Speaker 1: Lawyers from both supermarkets have appeared in the Federal Court
Speaker 1: after the A Triple C launched legal proceedings in September
Speaker 1: claiming the company's misled shoppers by raising prices before later
Speaker 1: discounting them. The supermarkets claim the cases against them are misconceived,
Speaker 1: and according to the ATO, more than one point five
Speaker 1: million Australians who would usually submit their tax returns with
Speaker 1: the help of an accountant have yet to do so.
Speaker 1: The ATO is urging taxpayers to submit their income tax
Speaker 1: returns before October thirty first, after which time they may
Speaker 1: face financial penalties. Seven Am is a daily show from
Speaker 1: Schwartz Media and The Saturday Paper. It's produced by Shane
Speaker 1: Anderson and Zolten Fetcho. Our technical producer is Atticus Basto.
Speaker 1: We are edited by Chris Dangate and Sarah mcvee. Eric
Speaker 1: Jensen is our editor in chief. Our mixer is Travis Evans.
Speaker 1: Our theme music is by Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan
Speaker 1: of Envelope Audio. Seven Am is hosted by Ruby Jones
Speaker 1: and myself Daniel James. We'll be back on Monday. Wow.
Speaker 3: You