THE Queen represented “the best in us” according to the former Australia Prime Minister, Paul Abbott.

He told GB News: “While it is a sad and sombre day, it’s also a day to give thanks for one of the most magnificent lives the world has ever seen.

“And for me, I am simply recalling her wonderful words from South Africa on her 21st birthday, ‘my whole life be it long or short will be devoted to your service and that of the great imperial family to which we all belong’.

“She was true to that pledge every day of her life.

“It’s so fitting that on her second last day on earth, she should swear in for 15th British Prime Minister in Liz Truss.

“So for me, the important thing about Her Majesty the Queen is that she represented what was best in us.

“She was part of our history. She was the embodiment of that great British tradition of keeping calm and carrying on.

“And today, I think, as well as being sad, we should count the blessings of having had this wonderful woman for so long.”

He told Patrick Christys on GB News: “I have great hopes for King Charles. He has been an activist here, which I suppose is understandable, given that he’s had to wait a long time.

“He’s very much his mother’s son. I know here in Australia, we will all give him a fair go.

“He deserves and I think he will very much govern in the same spirit he will write in the same spirit that his mother has shown, that his grandfather has shown, that his great grandfather has shown.

“One of the wonderful virtues of the House of Windsor is that successive generations have been, as it were, bred to a life of charity and service.

“I’m sure that our new king will rise to this heavy occasion.”

Mr Abbott said: “One of the benefits of Brexit is the ability of Britain to once more focus on the wider world, in particular, on the Commonwealth and I suppose especially on those countries that are such kith and kin.

“That’s always been the relationship between Australia and the United Kingdom. I don’t think any Briton coming to Australia feels like he or she is in a foreign country. Certainly, I don’t think any Australians going to Britain feel like they are in a foreign country.

“We both feel remarkably at home in each other’s country. The kind of irritations that they once were of having to be in the wrong queue at Heathrow – that’s all gone.

“Particularly with the recent AUKUS agreement, and the recent trade deal between Australia and the United Kingdom.

“I think that the closeness between our two countries will endure forever.”