It is a Public Holiday in Australia today, a holiday that extends to our myriad of diplomatic, consular and trade offices around world who will all close their doors.
Why? Well the reason is simple: to celebrate the Queen's Birthday and to confirm to millions of people that we are still a colonial British outpost. It doesn't seem to worry us that it isn't really the Queens Birthday (her real birthday is April 21), we grab the three day break all the same.
Whilst I am not a staunch republican as such, although I do lean in that direction, the Queens Birthday holiday is one of the most bizarre Public Holidays that we have. Almost as strange as the Melbourne Cup (horse race) holiday.
Even the British must scratch their heads, because even though Elizabeth is their queen and lives among them, they don't celebrate it like us. It's really just a hangover from the days of our severe cultural cringe, and doesn't belong anymore.
Irrespective of whether we are a constitutional Monarchy or not, there is no place for it. A bit like there is no place for “God Save the Queen” at any Australian functions any longer. Even the RSL concedes this.
It's time to move on, especially on the Queen's Birthday.
(Andrew Leigh offers an alternative here, and Cameron Riley has an associated comment that talks about our attitude towards history and marking it with Public Holidays)
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