Government House Queensland
Her Excellency provided Royal Assent for a Bill to create a public holiday on September 22 – a National Day of Mourning to commemorate the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
As a representative of our new Head of State, King Charles III, Her Excellency provided Royal Assent to the Holidays and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 - A bill for an Act to amend the Holidays Act 1983 and the Industrial Relations Act 2016 for particular purposes. Upon the granting of Royal Assent, the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament.
Queen Elizabeth II, who died on September 8, enjoyed a long and, in her words, “happy” relationship with the UK Parliament, and among her many duties included formally agreeing to make bills into Acts of Parliament, or laws.
The Queen’s famous red boxes carried the State papers she was presented with every working day of her life.
The Queen was served by 15 UK Prime Ministers during her reign and had a special relationship with each and every one, speaking to them weekly and able to “encourage or warn” them on matters of State whilst remaining politically neutral.
During an address to Parliament in 2012, she said, “Parliament has survived as an unshakeable cornerstone of our Constitution and our way of life. History links monarchs and Parliament, a connecting thread from one period to the next… the happy relationship I have enjoyed with Parliament has extended well beyond the more than three and a half thousand Bills I have signed into Law.”
As the monarch’s representative in the State of Queensland, the Governor enjoys a similarly close working relationship with the Queensland Parliament and performs the function of providing Royal Assent as a representative of our Head of State, now King Charles III, under authority provided for in the Queensland Constitution.
Assent is then notified in the Government Gazette, along with the day that the Act becomes operational as Law.
