The Reserve Bank of Australia offered the federal treasurer, Jim Chalmers, a choice of whether the new $5 note should feature King Charles III or a design that honours Indigenous history, documents reveal.
Earlier this month the RBA announced that King Charles would not replace his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, on the banknote and instead it would feature a design honouring the history or culture of First Nations people.
At the time, Chalmers admitted he had been consulted over the decision and supported it, but said it was an independent decision by the RBA.
The documents, released by the RBA under freedom of information to the website Right to Know, reveal that the central bank’s governor, Philip Lowe, indicated to Chalmers in October that the government’s desire would be a major factor in the decision.
“If the government is of the view that the king’s portrait should be on the $5 banknote, then the bank will proceed on that basis and seek an appropriate image from the palace,” Lowe said in an email to the treasurer on 7 October 2022.
“Alternatively, if the government’s view is that the monarch should no longer be on Australia’s banknotes, the bank will explore a new design that honours the culture and history of the First Australians.
“It is not our intention to replace the monarch with another individual.”
Chalmers responded to the letter on 16 December, saying that of the two options, the government “would be comfortable with a new design that honours the culture and history of First Australians, assuming a proper process for inclusive consultation is undertaken”.
“I have copied this letter to the prime minister, the minister for Indigenous Australians, the assistant minister for Indigenous Australians, the assistant minister for the republic and Senator [Patrick] Dodson, who is currently serving as special envoy for reconciliation and the implementation of the Uluru statement from the heart,” Chalmers said.
In a statement on Monday, Chalmers again said it was the RBA’s decision, and the government supported it.
“I welcomed the Reserve Bank’s decision on the day it was announced. I think it gets the balance right, and the Monarch will continue to be represented on all of our coins,” he said.
The decision on the $5 note provoked backlash from monarchist groups in Australia. The Australian Monarchist League said the decision was “trouncing” democracy and was “virtually neo-communism in action”.
The Liberal senator Dean Smith last week accused the government of a “gross lack of courtesy” in failing to alert the governor general and Buckingham Palace before the news was announced on 2 February.
The official secretary to the governor general, Paul Singer, told Senate estimates last week that he was surprised by the announcement and he shared a copy of the RBA’s announcement with his counterpart in the palace “to ensure that they didn’t wake up to the news without having been forewarned”.
It will take several years before the new note’s design will enter circulation, the RBA has said.
In the years prior to the launch of the $5 note featuring Queen Elizabeth in 1995, both the then Labor prime minister, Paul Keating, and Liberal opposition leader, John Hewson, were opposed to putting the queen on the note. But the RBA defied the leaders and replaced the English humanitarian Caroline Chisholm with the queen.
