John Singleton with Bob HowardRip Van Australia (Stanmore: Cassell Australia, 1977), pp. 163-64, under the heading “Monarchy”.

Keeping the trappings of a monarchy is a very expensive way to get ships launched, fetes opened and cocktail parties attended. Furthermore, the very idea that a person can be “born to rule” is little more than an obscenity, and anything that promotes the idea of kings, queens, princes and princesses, and all their attendant parasitical paraphernalia, is something that should be consigned to the darkest recesses of history. We can do without them.

Last year (1975-76), the Federal Government spent at least $820,119 on the Governor-General, his office and residence, plus part of a $1,197,969 travel bill (for “conveyance of Governor-General, Ministers of State and others by R.A.A.F. and Department of Transport aircraft”). The government also spent $13,558 on a visit by Prince Charles, $7,692 on a visit by Princess Anne and her husband and $68,633 on a visit by Princess Margaret.1 The N.S.W. Government had an estimated expenditure for last year of $352,632 on the State Governor’s Establishment and Executive Council.

Judging by these figures, the monarchy probably cost Australian taxpayers well over $2 million in 1975-76. And for what? A bit of pomp and ceremony, and a highly contentious double dissolution? We’d rather have our tax money back. Let those who dig the tradition of royalty pay for it. But count us out.

Footnote
  1. Figures from The Treasurer’s Statement of Receipts and Expenditures for the Year Ended 30 June 1976 and Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 1976-77, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1976.