Honours and Awards within the Australian Honours System - Investiture Ceremony (E) for Residents of Queensland

It is my great honour to welcome you to Fernberg, to ‘the people’s  house’ in Queensland.

I at once acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbul and Jagera peoples, and extend respect to Elders past and present.

Kaye and I regard these Investiture ceremonies are one of the highlights of the vice-regal calendar, because it is when we welcome, as our honoured guests, the most esteemed Queenslanders – by which I mean each of you, the most recent recipients of Australian honours and awards.

I warmly welcome all of the family members and friends of the awardees, and official guests, who accepted the invitation to join us today.

Your pride in the recognition of your loved one is part of what makes these Investitures so enjoyable and so memorable.

I also acknowledge that for the two people sitting in the front rows, today’s celebration is bittersweet.

I thank Mr Michael Smith, who has accepted on behalf of his Father, the late Emeritus Professor Larry Smith, the award of Member of the Order of Australia, and Mrs Frances Clark, who has accepted the Medal in the Order of Australia on behalf of her late husband, Lieutenant Colonel Graeme Clark, for their presence today.

Please accept our condolences on your great loss.

Today is a day which also belongs to the whole of our Queensland community.

It is one of the ways our community publicly acclaims and acknowledges meritorious service.

Your contributions have been made in a remarkably diverse number of areas: from service as an advocate for Australian manufacturers to the building and construction industry, and in the vocational education and training, natural resources, disability, environmental and transport sectors.

There is dedicated service to visual arts, to sport – in cycling, golf and rugby league, and to medicine, as a urologist, another to community health.

We have heard of service to veterans, and to the communities of the Gold Coast, Toowoomba, Gayndah, Central Queensland and the Indigenous communities of our North.

And we have with us a former Member of the Parliament of Australia, and two long-standing members of the Queensland media, all exceptional contributors to State and national discourse.

Since my appointment as Governor, I have been privileged to meet hundreds of recipients at Investiture Ceremonies just like this one.  

All awardees are characterised by a relentless focus on the future – on discoveries yet to be made, on records yet to be achieved, and on work which remains to be done within their communities.

Today we pause to focus on past achievements. And we do so with an immensely grateful presence of mind.

Recipients, today, on behalf of your fellow Queenslanders, I acknowledge the depth and span of your achievements.

Through your personal commitment, your personal effort and the personal service you have rendered, you have made our great State, even greater.

The honours and awards you have received and the post nominals you are now entitled to use are the symbols of your community’s esteem.

Wear and use them with pride, so that our fellow Australians can be inspired by all you have achieved. 

And I hope you will enjoy the hospitality of Government House today, as I extend to each of you, on behalf of the people of Queensland, with Kaye, our sincere congratulations on your honours and awards.