Queen Elizabeth flies to Australia on her 16th visit

CANBERRA, October 19: Queen Elizabeth II was flying to Australia on Wednesday for a 10-day visit during which she will travel to four cities and open a meeting of leaders of mostly former British colonies.
The 85-year-old monarch and her 90-year-old husband Prince Philip were assured of a warm welcome despite the ruling Labor Party's desire for the British monarch to be replaced by a president as Australia's head of state.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said Australia should become a republic after the queen's reign.
But Ms. Gillard did not believe that debate would mar the monarch's first visit since 2006, when she opened the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
"While the queen is here in Australia, what Australians will be doing is enjoying and celebrating her presence here," Ms. Gillard told reporters hours before the queen's chartered jet was due to land in Canberra.
"I believe she's very well respected by Australians and I think she's going to be tremendously warmly received from the moment that she sets foot on Australian soil," she added.
Australians rejected a proposal to make Australia a republic at a referendum in 1999.
The queen will visit Brisbane and Melbourne before opening next week's meeting of the 54-nation Commonwealth in the western coastal city of Perth. Leaders of the nations linked to Britain's former empire, who meet every two years, will consider a range of recommended reforms including lifting laws against homosexuality which exist in most Commonwealth countries.
Media commentators have speculated that this Australian visit her 16th could be the queen's last given her advanced years and the 11,000-mile (18,000-kilometer) distance from Buckingham Palace in London to a country that was one of the British Empire's most far removed outposts.
But her former press secretary Dickie Arbiter pointed to the example of the queen's late mother who visited Canada when she was aged in her 90s.
"With the queen, you should never say 'last;' never say 'never,'" Mr. Arbiter said in an interview published in The Canberra Times newspaper on Wednesday.
The queen's biographer Hugo Vickers said she made a point of attending every meeting of the 54-nation Commonwealth. Only 53 countries will be represented at the Perth summit because Fiji has been suspended since its army overthrew the government in 2006. "She has not minded when Commonwealth countries have dropped her as head of state, but she does mind if they leave the Commonwealth," Mr. Vickers was quoted as saying by The Canberra Times.
In 1954, the queen became the first reigning British monarch to ever visit Australia.
The queen will be welcomed at an Australian air force base in Canberra by Governor General Quentin Bryce, the monarch's representative in Australia, and spend most of her 10 nights in Australia at Bryce's official residence. Ms. Gillard will also be on hand to greet the queen. (Agenices)


2011-10-19



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