Head of state: MPs bombarded with requests for free portraits of Queen
It’s a great Australian tradition borne of our parliamentary system – contacting your local MP to complain about bin collections and unsavoury property developments next door.
But it turns out that parliamentarians’ real obligation to Australian voters is to be the nation’s least-known but best-stocked royal merchandiser.
Under the bizarre quirk, constituents are entitled to receive certain “nationhood material” under the “constituents’ request program”.
The best-known obligation is to provide Australian flags, which MPs’ offices have dutifully complied with many years. But the program also extends to other material, such as recordings of the national anthem, and portraits of Queen Elizabeth.
An article in the the online magazine Vice this week highlighted the little-known parliamentary code and has sparked a flurry of requests to MPs.
“As a good constituent and apparent royalist, I sent an email to my MP, Andrew Hastie, and requested Liz’s portrait,” Vice’s Nicholas Lord wrote.
“While I was initially told his office was out of stock – I apparently wasn’t the first Western Australian to want Elizabeth on my wall – three weeks later I had my portrait, along with some complimentary Aussie flags for good measure.”
Portraits of the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, are also available.
Tim Watts, the Labor MP for Gellibrand and a republican, said he had received dozens of “tongue in cheek” requests for a portrait since the Vice story.
“I love my constituents. They have responded to this article in that Australian tradition of taking the piss,” Watts said on Sky News, while brandishing various portraits of “Her Madge”.
Watts said constituents who requested a Queen Elizabeth portrait from his office would also receive promotional material for the Australian Republic Movement.
Not everyone was happy with the sudden flurry of requests.
Department of Finance guidelines state that MPs may spend as much as they like on the material, provided it does not push their overall office expenditure above the required annual budget.
While Australians can receive the portraits from their MPs for free, those in the UK may pay for them. In Canada, the portraits are available for download.