The latest fallout from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre is the cancellation of a trip the Queen was due to make to Australia and New Zealand. The British monarch was scheduled to open the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Brisbane, before embarking upon a tour of Queensland and South Australia and then flying on to New Zealand for eight days. The three-day conference has now been postponed, however.
Following the decision, New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark released a statement which said, however disappointing the decision might be, it was thoroughly understandable. “The terrorist attacks in the US,” she added, “mean that many leaders have pressing problems to address at this time, on both the international and domestic fronts.”
New Zealand’s neighbour, Australia, is one of the Queen’s favourite countries to visit. This would have been her second trip Down Under since the 1999 referendum in which the former British colony chose to keep the monarch as their head of state in a close battle with the republican movement. Australian premier John Howard is hoping that when the conference is rescheduled for next year, Brisbane will still be the venue of choice.
Don McKinnon, secretary general of the Commonwealth, said in a statement: “Prime Minister Howard has told me that the Government of Australia is keen to host this meeting in Brisbane early next year and will be consulting Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth, in relation to the exact timing.”
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
