James Lister, Member for Southern Downs, Queensland Parliament, Allora Advertiser

On Friday morning I, like everyone in our electorate of Southern Downs, woke to the news that The Queen had passed away overnight.

Although Her Majesty had been in declining health in recent times, the news that she is no longer with us came as a shock to me personally, and it appears that this feeling is shared widely throughout the world. I am sure that I am among many, many, others in feeling a pervasive and deep sadness over the news of the Queen’s passing. The Queen was the only monarch that most of us have ever known, and suddenly she is no more.

My father, who was six years old when King George VI died, told me last week that he still remembers, even at that young age, the news of The King’s passing, and the impact which it had on the people around him. Although our society and the world of 1952 has irreversibly changed in the intervening seventy years, my dad senses that the same instincts of loyalty and affection continue to run deep, and can be seen in the overwhelming and lovingly sad response from people everywhere and on social media at news that the Queen has died.

Yesterday my son William and I wrote messages of sympathy to the new King in a condolence book at Parliament House. Even William, at the tender age of eight, wrote a touching message expressing his sadness that he never got to meet her. I glanced through the book to see that many people, from all walks of life, truly loved and admired the Queen, and that her long reign was a beacon of comfort, stability and certainty in our ever changing world. And I think that it was that stability, that “always being there”, which made The Queen’s passing such a momentous and sad event. How could something so constant and apparently everlasting come to an end?

We have lost a truly remarkable Sovereign. Throughout her seventy year reign – the longest in the over one thousand year history of the Crown – Elizabeth the Second was a tower of strength and dignity. She proved over long years that lasting and beloved leadership is not founded upon power and influence (although she nominally possessed both) but that it is about always being there and being a steadfast reference point through time and in the lives of people and nations. Throughout her long reign, The Queen faced many difficult challenges, many of which related to her role as head of her family. At these times, we have seen that The Queen was human, could change, and never forgot the duty of service that she and her family owed the people.

To me, it meant a great deal to be sworn to duty in the Queen’s name. When I was commissioned as a young Flying Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, I was proud to publicly swear an oath to The Queen and to be commissioned in her name to defend her and to resist her enemies, for the people of Australia. My Air Force commission certificate bears the signature of the Governor-General as head of state, and is stamped with the Great Seal of Australia bearing the name of Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Australia. And as a member of parliament, I am equally proud to have sworn an oath to her to serve the people of Southern Downs.

I’m sure anyone who has been sworn in – from soldiers and new Australian citizens, to cub scouts and girl guides, from police to justices of the peace – would understand what I mean. It certainly meant something to the Queen herself, who set an impeccable example to us and lived always true to her coronation vows.

I wish our new King the very best as he starts his reign, and I extend my sympathies to His Majesty and his family at their sad loss.

This article appeared in the Allora Advertiser, 14 September 2022.