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With trumpets sounding, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived to a packed room of 600 in the Great Hall at Parliament House.
Invitees included politicians, prominent media personalities, including The Weekly’s editor-in-chief Helen McCabe, fashion designers including the Zimmermann sisters, who designed the dress that the Duchess wore on Easter Sunday, Carla Zampatti and Camilla Franks, actor David Wenham, surfer Layne Beachley and her husband INXS’s Kirk Pengilly, Museum of Contemporary Art Director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor and many more.
On stage, Prime Minister Tony Abbott kicked off proceedings with a rousing speech in praise of the royal couple, also plugging his own electorate. “A couple of years back, Kelly Slater visited Manly in my electorate. There were over a thousand screaming fans as you would expect when the world’s greatest surfer visited the world’s greatest beach,” he quipped. “But as I have seen with my own eyes, Sir, Ma’am, in Manly you are bigger than Kelly Slater, perhaps by a factor ten.”
The Prime Minister’s monarchist sympathies were heavily on display. “Royal visits are a reminder that the best things in life are those that have stood the test of time,” he said. “Over centuries, the Crown has come to symbolise the ideals of duty and service at the heart of our culture.”
“It is not necessary to live permanently in Australia well and truly to belong here.” He went on. And specifically of Prince William he said the Prince had inherited the sense of duty of his father, Prince Charles and the compassion of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
Next up was leader of the opposition and republican Bill Shorten who recounted a funny and quite telling family anecdote. “A couple of years ago, some relatives of mine who run a small hotel on the Isle of Mull on the west coast of Scotland, sent me an old photograph of Prince William’s great-grandfather George VI, at the launch of a ship at Newcastle upon Tyne, circa 1931. Just two guests, perhaps three guests to the right of the then Duke of York, stands a bowler-hatted gentleman, proudly watching on, my great-grandfather, a Tyneside dockside worker. It has only taken us 83 years for our families to catch up again.”
Shorten talked about the popularity of this tour, but was also keen to point out the new balance of the relationship between Australia and the UK. “We perhaps no longer look to Britain as the mother country, but certainly as our oldest continuous friend and our relationship is stronger and healthier for this.”
When William stood up to speak he dominated the room and charmed the throng with a speech full of praise for Australia and our achievements in sport, business, the arts and sciences. “Reluctantly, Catherine, George and I leave Australia tomorrow. Thank you for the warmth and generosity that has been shown to us during our visit. We go away with wonderful memories, and George goes away with his cuddly wombat, which he has taken to chewing so lovingly. We greatly look forward to coming back. And when we do return, it will be to marvel again at all that Australia is, and will yet become.”
In advance of ANZAC day tomorrow, The Prince also announced: “Catherine and I look forward to paying tribute to them at tomorrow’s ANZAC Day commemoration; and – with my brother Harry – to taking part in next year’s Gallipoli centenary.”
