DAN COX, PRESENTER: Shortland MP Pat Conroy is the Minister for Defence Industry and the Minister for International Development and the Pacific. He joins you now. Good morning, Minister.
PAT CONROY, MINISTER FOR DEFENCE INDUSTRY AND MINISTER FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE PACIFIC: Good morning, how are you?
COX: Well thank you. Let’s start with why we need to have a National Day of Mourning, a public holiday.
CONROY: Well it’s appropriate. We’ve obviously, it’s very important to mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Her reign of 70 years was remarkable, and it’s appropriate that we acknowledge and mourn her decades of public service. So the way it works is a National Day of Mourning is declared the day after the Prime Minister and Governor-General return from the funeral, and the Prime Minister in consultation with the Premiers and Chief Minister decided it would be appropriate to have a one-off national public holiday so that everyone would have the opportunity to reflect and mourn the passing of Queen Elizabeth.
JENNY MARCHANT, PRESENTER: So when it comes to the question of why Thursday 22nd and not say Friday 23rd, it needs to be the day after the Prime Minister and Governor-General return home?
CONROY: Yes, so the date is determined by what is the National Mourning Day, and protocols which have been in place for quite a long time dictate that the National Day of Mourning should be the first day after the Governor-General and the Prime Minister arrive back from the funeral. So basically the day – the minute the funeral was set for Monday, that means that the Governor-General will return to the country on the Wednesday evening, and Thursday is the first full day after his arrival. So that’s the train of events that got put in place.
COX: We are seeing some of the traditions take place that we’ve never really experienced because it hasn’t happened in 70 years, so seeing that our Federal Parliament and our States as well have to proclaim who the new monarch is is quite extraordinary, and you were part of yesterday’s federal proclamation of King Charles III as the King of Australia. What was that like?
CONROY: Oh it was incredible to be part of history. Quite frankly, at this stage it doesn’t matter if you’re a republican or a monarchist or neither, to have the opportunity to witness a new Head of State is remarkable. And that’s what I did yesterday where the Federal Executive Council which is all of the Ministers of the Government met together to witness the Governor-General proclaiming King Charles III as Australia’s new Head of State, and we did that at Government House. And then we went to Parliament House where the Governor-General made the public proclamation in front of the federation guards from the Australian Defence Force, and there was a 21-gun salute from the Army artillery. So it was a very moving and solemn and somber occasion and I think it was important that Shortland be represented there.
MARCHANT: Pat Conroy is with us on ABC Newcastle Breakfast, Shortland MP. Mr Conroy, with respect for this period of mourning and the Queen’s passing, Parliament has been suspended for a fortnight. That seems like an extraordinary amount of time. Why is that happening?
CONROY: The protocol across the entire Commonwealth is that no Parliaments should meet within the 15 days of mourning for the Queen, and so Parliament was automatically suspended. We lose four days of sitting, and the Prime Minister has indicated that he is working with the Leader of the House, Tony Burke and the Senate leadership to make up those days. But it is appropriate. Parliament can be a pretty willing place in terms of political debate as it should be, and that’s not appropriate when we are mourning the loss of the Sovereign.
MARCHANT: Do you know why it’s 15 days?
CONROY: I honestly can’t say I do. It’s probably some ancient tradition. I won’t speculate what’s driven it, but that’s been in place for some time. That 15 days was a hard and fast rule.
MARCHANT: Right.
CONROY: And these timings have been set down for a long, long time.
COX: It doesn’t mean 15 days off for you. What does it mean when Parliament doesn’t sit for a local MP and a Minister?
CONROY: Well I’m actually in Canberra at the moment because my roles as a Minister continue, so I’ve got meetings of subcommittees of Cabinet - I am on the National Security Committee of Cabinet. So Ministers will do their normal job - you take meetings, you’ll read and review your submissions and briefs and make decisions. What we won’t be doing is anything that’s seen as overly political or things that are seen as sort of heavy on the media other than providing information about obviously the mourning period and arrangements around funerals and national mourning days. So we still do our job, but we don’t do the, sort of, more public facing part of that during the mourning period.
MARCHANT: Will the four days of Parliament be made up somewhere else?
CONROY: Yes, so the Prime Minister has indicated that will happen and we are just working through the logistics of that as well. One of the complicating factors is we are running out of time before the end of the year, and the Prime Minister along with former Prime Ministers Howard, Abbott, and Turnbull will be at the end of September attending the funeral of Shinzo Abe in Japan after his obviously tragic assassination. So it’s difficult to find that time, but I am confident we will find those four days and make it up and get on with our agenda, but at this stage it’s just important to use this period to mourn and reflect on the passing of the Queen while doing the important parts of governing.
COX: Interesting part of your role being Minister for International Development and the Pacific, and of course many of these Pacific nations are Commonwealth nations too. What does it mean for them with the death of our Queen?
CONROY: Well they’re going through the same process as us in terms of proclaiming King Charles III as their new Head of State if they are constitutional monarchies and countries like Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu are, and we’ve made an offer and I believe it has been accepted to transport the representatives from those countries to the funeral in London. Some of these countries are quite isolated and it’s challenging to get flights sometimes, and that’s why us having some Australian Air Force jets capable of transporting them to London is so important. And we do this quite regularly for Pacific leaders. We’ve taken some of them to meetings of Pacific Islands Forum and other things. It’s a recognition that we are all part of the Pacific family and Australia has some of these resources that other nations don’t, but it’s important that they participate and represent their citizens.
COX: Pat Conroy, really interesting to talk to you. Thank you.
CONROY: Have a good day, thank you.