ARM Calls on Federal Government to invest in Australians rather than a foreign monarch

Today marks 70 years since Queen Elizabeth II became the reigning monarch of the UK and by default, Australia’s Head of State too. Yet, despite seven decades as Australia’s Head of State almost two-thirds of Australians are unaware she holds this role.

ARM polling research in December 2021 found that just 36% of Australians knew Queen Elizabeth II was Australia’s Head of State. This is consistent with previous polling released by Essential Media in 2018 which showed that only one-third (34%) of Australians knew the Queen was Australia’s Head of State (results enclosed below).

Only 15% of Australians aged 18-24 years and 24.5% of 25-34 year olds knew Queen Elizabeth II was Australia’s Head of State.

The Federal Government needs to justify why it is spending millions of dollars during a pandemic to pay tribute to a monarch that most Australians don’t even recognise as our Head of State.

A submission made to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs in 2021 by the Department of Skills, Education and Employment noted that “the indicative time for Civics and Citizenship in the curriculum is 2 per cent across each of the years 3-10, which equates to approximately 20 hours per year.”

Civics education bolstering the democratic engagement of young Australians would be a far more worthy investment of the resources than celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee in 2022.

National Director of the Australian Republic Movement Sandy Biar said that the funds earmarked for the Jubilee events in 2022 should be spent on bolstering Australian democracy instead.

“Surely investing in young Australians and ensuring they can participate in Australia’s democracy is a better use of taxpayer funds than pageantry for a foreign monarch” Mr Biar said.

“Despite seventy years as our Head of State, almost two-thirds of Australians are totally unaware of the Queen’s role in Australia’s system of government.

“Australians deserve to have a Head of State who is chosen by them and who can put the interests of Australians first.

“We know monarchists lobbied to divert these taxpayer funds away from essential services to these festivities. They should be careful what they wish for; the more Australians know about the role of the monarchy in Australia’s system of government, the more support for an Australian republic increases” Mr Biar said.

Research Results:

Polling undertaken by PureProfile between 13 and 21 Dec 2021.

(n=2038)