Government House Queensland
Today’s first sitting day of Queensland Parliament for 2025 was marked by the special return of a ceremonial tradition last performed in 2016, with the Governor’s Message to Parliament hand-delivered to the Speaker by Her Excellency’s ‘messenger’, in this case, Honorary Aide-de-Camp Flight Lieutenant Adam Lo OAM.
The Message from the Governor advised the Legislative Assembly she had granted Royal Assent to a Bill – an essential step in the legislative process upon which a Bill becomes an Act of Parliament.
Every Bill passed by the Queensland Parliament must receive Royal Assent, which is almost always granted by the Governor as a representative of our Head of State, His Majesty King Charles III, and is one of Her Excellency’s key constitutional duties.
Royal Assent can also be provided by the Sovereign themselves if they are physically present in Queensland. The first and only time this occurred was in April 1970, when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was in Townsville and personally granted Royal Assent to the James Cook University of North Queensland Bill 1970, thereby proclaiming Queensland’s second-oldest university.
These days, when the Governor grants Royal Assent, she signs two parchment copies of the Bill on behalf of His Majesty, which are then delivered with an accompanying letter from Her Excellency to Parliamentary Services for tabling and Assent is then notified in the Government Gazette.
Today marked a special ceremonial return to the tradition of that message being hand-delivered to the Chamber, in a nod to the ceremonial pomp and pageantry that continues to shape our state’s parliamentary history.