A little common curtsey goes a long way

WHAT is a missing curtsey between friends? The Queen has shown that she is indeed a “sport” – Australia’s highest accolade – by rising above the rules of etiquette and displaying a warmth and affection for the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, who yesterday used two more public occasions to demonstrate her Republicanism.

Despite enduring a wave of bad publicity in Australia for declining to curtsey to the Queen on what is expected to be her last state visit, Ms Gillard once again opted for a brief bow when she met the Queen at Parliament House in Canberra.

However, there might just have been the hint of a curtsey when she greeted her royal guest at Government House in the capital.

On the first day of the royal visit, Ms Gillard was shamed by a young girl who demonstrated the perfect curtsey at the Canberra Flower Show. “See, Julia, it isn’t that hard”, declared the Melbourne Herald Sun.

On the second day, it was Liz Cambage, a 6ft 8in basketball player who showed the prime minister up by executing what must have been the deepest curtsey the Queen has ever received.

“Oh,” exclaimed the Queen when she met Ms Cambage, who was born in London and emigrated when she was four, “you must be a basketball player.”

Ms Cambage replied that she was indeed, and then joked: “What gave it away?”

The Queen, always comfortable with the obvious, said: “You are very tall”, before adding: “That must be an advantage.”

The player agreed “it is a bit”.

When the Queen introduced her to the Duke of Edinburgh: “This is an Australian basketball player”, he replied: “Yes, that would be right”.

Meanwhile, Ms Gillard appeared to add to the controversy when she stood with her lips tightly sealed as the British national anthem was played at the start of a reception in the Queen’s honour at Parliament House, for which she also arrived in a very similar outfit. The prime minister found her voice for the Australian anthem.

During a speech, Julia Gillard welcomed the Queen, who is on her 16th visit to Australia, as a “beloved and respected friend”. She said the future of Australia, which voted against cutting ties to the monarchy in 1999, remained unknown.

“Your Majesty, we do not know where Australia’s path of nationhood may lead in the times to come,” said the prime minister.

“We are, as you once so rightly said, ‘a country on the move’ and will go on being so,” said Ms Gillard, before adding that the Queen would continue to have Australians’ “lasting affection and our very deep respect”.

Last year, Ms Gillard faced weeks of wrangling before she was able to form the first minority government in decades, which commentators have said could easily be threatened.

Earlier, the Queen discussed the difficulties of forming minority governments when she met the leader of the Australian opposition, Tony Abbott, in Canberra.

She said: “It is an interesting time.”

Mr Abbott, the Liberal Party leader, replied: “It is never dull, we play our politics tough in this country and give no quarter, Australian society is always dynamic.”

He made the Queen laugh when he added: “We like to think we’re the happening place, your majesty.”

The Queen then replied: “A minority government is always a difficult thing to organise.”

As is a republican curtsey.