A unifying presence
Robert Menzies held a deep personal regard for Queen Elizabeth II and was prime minister during her first royal tour to Australia in 1954.
This is a transcript of the address in reply given by Menzies following the Queen’s address to Parliament on 15 February 1954.
We, Your Majesty's loyal subjects, the Members of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, in Parliament assembled, desire to thank Your Majesty for her gracious speech which you have been pleased to address to Parliament on this, your first visit to our country. The presence in Australia of Your Majesty and of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh has brought unbounded pleasure to the Australian people. We, their representatives in this House, invoke the choicest blessing upon your life and reign and are grateful for this opportunity to reaffirm our loyalty and devotion to the Crown and Person of Your Majesty. I do not propose to make a long speech. This is the Queen's day and I shall trespass on it as briefly as possible, but I think one or two things ought to be said. Of all those who have sat in the Parliament of the Australian nation, we who are here now have attained the most unique privilege. For the first time in our history our sovereign is with us in person. For the first time in our history our sovereign has come to her Australian Parliament.
In the Speech which she addressed to us this afternoon, Her Majesty reminded us that, under the very terms of our Constitution, she is a part of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, and I am sure that, with this very happy reminder still in our ears, we all appreciate that our Parliament has now found its full and complete expression. The Queen, the Senate and the House of Representatives have met today, not only according to the printed word of our Constitution, but also in a rich, magnificent and human way.
The Address-in-Reply is, in normal practice, the signal for political debate. Today, it is the signal for the greatest, most moving and enduring unanimity that this Parliament has ever seen. By our Address, we recognise our homage and the duty of our allegiance, but we desire to express much more than that - our love, our pride and our thankfulness to God that, whatever troubles may beset the world, and however man may be set against man in unhappy parts of the world, we of the great British family are privileged to live in unity under a young and lovely Queen, a great Queen today but one who is bound to be greater and greater as the years move on.
She has, I believe, helped us to understand more perfectly that humility and pride can co-exist, and that under a Queen like her, subjecthood is no mark of inferiority but is in itself a title of honour. Whatever party we belong to in this place and however violently we may differ about policy or administration, we are today, on this unforgettable occasion, all the Queen's men. Proud to be the members of her Parliament, and determined so to order our affairs and discharge our responsibilities that our Queen, of whom we are so proud, will always, in her turn, he proud of us.