Oz removes monarch from currency

Sydney – Australia will remove the British monarch from its banknotes, replacing the late Queen Elizabeth II’s image on its $5 note (about R60) with a design honouring indigenous culture, the central bank said yesterday.

The decision to leave her successor King Charles III off the $5 note means no monarch would remain on Australia’s paper currency.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said it would consult indigenous people on a new design that “honours the culture and history of the First Australians”.

Queen Elizabeth’s death on 8 September last year was marked by public mourning in Australia, but some indigenous groups also protested against the destructive impact of colonial Britain, calling for the abolition of the monarchy.

Australia is a constitutional monarchy, a democracy with King Charles III as its head of state. A referendum proposing a switch to a republic was narrowly defeated in 1999.

The central bank said its decision was supported by the centre-left Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,

who favours an eventual move to an Australian republic.

The new banknote would take “a number of years” to be designed and printed, it said.

The RBA’s move was hailed by the nation’s republican movement, which noted that Indigenous people predated British settlement by 65 000 years.

“To think that an unelected king should be on our currency in place of First Nations leaders and elders and eminent Australians is no longer justifiable,” said Australian Republic Movement chair Craig Foster. –