Letter: Role of the monarchy

Sir: The Extra Chaplain to the Queen may have a couple of kangaroos loose in the top paddock. The "live process" to which Canon Eric James refers ("Is it now time to elect the monarchy?", 8 May) of "Australia becoming independent of Britain and free of the monarchy" actually happened on 1 January 1901, following two referenda which were a trifle more defining than the one held in London this week.

The Australian constitution was written with a view to having an absent sovereign. Indeed the sovereign did not come near us for our first 54 years. When the Queen intended visiting in 1954, it was realised that the constitution had so effectively stripped the British monarch of all powers that she was unable to perform any of the formal functions we had requested of her.

Heads of state live in their own countries and are paid, housed, secured and feted in their own countries. They have a hands-on, day-to-day role in their own governments and they represent their own countries when they travel overseas. The British monarch does none of these things for Australia, and Australia has never paid taxes or tribute to Britain.

The Queen is our sovereign, not our head of state. She reigns but does not rule over us. Her sole remaining function in Australia is to appoint or remove our Governor-General on the advice of our own democratically elected prime minister. Most of us regard this as a congenial reminder of our remarkable constitutional development.

GLENISTER SHEIL

Leader, Queenslanders for a Constitutional Monarchy

London SW1