theauspolchronicles:

MP offices are being inundated with requests for free portraits of the Queen because apparently we’re allowed to have those??

Turns out there’s a loophole where Australians are entitled to receive certain “nationhood material” under the constituents request program “subject to the limit of your annual budget for office expenses… you may purchase flags and documents related to nationhood [for constituents]” – the actual government not realising what they just wrote into the fine print.

This is meant to be things like if you want a free Aussie flag, Indigenous Australian flag, or a recording of the national anthem. Naturally this also means that people have been asking for free portraits of The Queen because we’re part of the Commonwealth. (Which also means Canadian citizens can request to have a digital download of the portrait). Labor MP Tim Watts says that MPs aren’t legally obligated, just legally able to use their annual budget to source such materials. Still, he’s followed through on these requests.

Apparently you just need to ask your local federal MP office for this which is quite wild and also what I’m about to do immediately after I finish writing this.