Pop quiz heads-up for royal headshot
A GEELONG MP has given a sneak peek into the constitutional pop quiz he’ll be giving constituents wanting a portrait of the Queen.
Corio federal Labor MP Richard Marles has received more than 100 requests for portraits of the Queen in the past week, after media outlet VICE inaccurately reported all Australian constituents were entitled to the prints under the “constituents request program”.
Constituents are only entitled to request the “nationhood material”, with MPs left to decide when to actually provide the items.
Mr Marles, a selfproclaimed “staunch republican”, will now hold a stall outside his Yarra St office at 2pm tomorrow, inviting those constituents who want a portrait to front up and answer five questions on the constitution to be eligible for a picture.
For those who cannot do so, they can instead have a copy of the constitution.
To give constituents an idea of what will be asked, Mr Marles has revealed three of the five questions he plans on asking constituents:
1. Which section of the Constitution deals with drunkenness?
2. Name all the states as defined in the Constitution?
3. Given the capital is where the parliament sits, name the only city which is described as a capital of Australia?
“If people really want a portrait of the Queen from my office they can have one, but they are going to have to work for it,” Mr Marles said this week.
“To gauge how genuine people are about celebrating Australia’s head of state, they will need to answer some basic constitutional questions to receive one. Those who cannot answer these questions will receive a copy of the constitution instead.”