Queensland Club Governor’s Dinner 2021

Your Honour; Defence leaders; our President, Mr David Phipps; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

It is a delight and a privilege for Kaye and me to join you once again at the Queensland Club, with which we have been gratefully associated over so many years.  

I am also very pleased tonight that with us is my newly appointed Official Secretary, Mrs Kate Hastings, who I am sure you will want to meet. While I am the 26^th Governor of Queensland since separation in 1859, Kate is the 12^th Official Secretary since that office was established in 1939.

I must have used that word – ‘privilege’ – scores of times over the last seven years to describe my experiences as Governor. Yet the potency of those nine letters has never waned for Kaye and me.

This wonderful privilege is present in all of my vice-regal duties, though tonight I will speak mostly about the community aspects of the role – without in any way diminishing its vital constitutional and ceremonial elements, the ceremonial in particular accentuated with the approach of Anzac Day. 

For almost seven years, Kaye and I have actively pursued a strong personal commitment, given at my swearing-in, to support the cohesion and well-being of communities all over the State – with the emphasis on ‘all over’, and especially relevant here, for we are the Queensland Club.

We even managed to find ways of continuing this outreach, safely, during the COVID tumult of 2020.

As a result, we have had many special and, yes, privileged moments.

Some bring into play strong emotions.

White Ribbon Day is always one such event, but even more so at our reception at Government House last year, which was attended by the parents of Hannah Clarke, Sue and Lloyd. Their decision to campaign against domestic violence after the horrific crime committed against their daughter and three grandchildren last year is as courageous as it is humbling.   

We have also felt that privilege deeply when meeting Queenslanders in often vastly separated parts of the State blighted by ferocious bushfires, destructive floods and the long drought – the last eased to some limited degree by good rains that have fallen across western areas of the State this year. Our western cousins remind us however that much more steady rain is needed. What strong people they are!

For us, this recognition of adversity is the other face of privilege, the responsibility to do all that we can to lift people’s spirits in the toughest of times.   

There are, of course, lighter moments – such as the delight of meeting with and reading stories to hundreds of primary school students, mainly by Kaye, whether at tiny Dajarra south of Mount Isa or Cordalba near Bundaberg, or at Brighton State School addressing 500 students in period costume for their centenary last year. Last year’s candid student question? “When you finish up as Governor, will you be an ordinary person again?”

Then there was our attendance at the AFL Grand Final in Brisbane last September where, having chatted with the Brisbane Lions’ Lachie Neale about Roy Cazaly’s remarkable marks, as you do, I turned to find Dawn Fraser sitting behind me. The young Lachie was not, I sensed, too clear about Cazaly; and I suspect Dawn Fraser, if she heard it, would not have been too clear about the accuracy of my explanation. Any inadequacy was mine!

Just last weekend, I was in Nanango, to officially open the 112^th agricultural show. Sadly, due to COVID-19, that was my first show since September 2019, that last one in Kenilworth.

What has struck me in talking to regional Mayors this past year is the deprivation their communities have suffered through cancellation of races, rodeos and shows – country people rely on these events as welcome diversions in their really demanding day-to-day lives.

I am so very glad these events are slowly returning, if slowly.  

The Nanango Show also provided me, the morning after his passing, the opportunity to publicly express the gratitude of the Queensland people for the remarkable service and loyalty of the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Duke was the most frequent Royal visitor to Queensland, visiting independently on numerous occasions and accompanying The Queen on all eight tours – including in 2011, when I escorted him after lunch over about 40 minutes through South Bank to the vehicle, while Kaye accompanied The Queen – at Her Majesty’s specific request, by which I was most impressed and gratified.

The vital interest the Duke took in our people in Queensland was always evident to us. 

As I said goodbye at the Land Rover, he asked me: “What are you doing now?”

I said, “Back to the Supreme Court”. He said: “Don’t you have the day orf?”

And when I said no, he said: “Not even on the Sovereign’s day!”

Prince Philip’s life was a model of selfless devotion to duty and service, a shining example to us all. He will be greatly missed in Queensland, and I have formally conveyed the deepest condolences of the Queensland people to Her Majesty and the Royal Family.

Kaye and I treasure the gift of all these memories – of joy and sadness, triumph and tragedy, of strength, resilience, humour and hope – always wrapped in the warm and generous welcome from people all over Queensland.  

We hope that our personal commitment to Queensland’s communities has, in turn, left some positive legacy.

It was suggested to me this week that one positive indicator, is that after nearly seven years, I finally became a quiz question in last weekend’s Sunday Mail: “Name the Governor of Queensland!”

I am self-indulgently an avid follower of my own media coverage – fortunately more benign since I became Governor, but I confess I missed that one! I wonder how many readers answered correctly!

The recent publication ‘The Governors of Modern Queensland’, which Government House commissioned, is perhaps a more tangible legacy than answers to a quiz question in the Sunday Mail.

The book traces the vice-regal role through the tenure of the last five surviving Governors, all of us appointed since the Australia Acts of 1986 meant The Queen appointed on the recommendation of the Premier, not the UK Ministry. Sir Walter Campbell, appointed as Governor in 1985, was the last Governor appointed on the earlier basis.

Now with my own slight embrace of history, I have arranged a personal ‘keepsake’ for the Club as an inadequate thank you for your great goodwill towards Kaye and me.    

The President has kindly agreed to accept, for the Library, a seven-volume official history of the Second World War – given to me by my parents for my 21^st birthday in 1969, the year after I was commissioned in the Queensland University Regiment – and I am so pleased to see again this evening my former Commanding Officer, Brigadier Sam Harrison and Dr Jennifer Harrison – great friends and mentors. I thank Government House for crafting the accompanying elegant stand.

Now it is an exceedingly thorough history, so I will happily award a ‘Governor’s Coin’ to anyone who reads it from cover to cover, something I may not have quite managed myself.

Regrettably, the coin is a souvenir rather than legal tender, but in this case it will buy you bragging rights.   

Kaye and I thank our President and Committee, the members and staff for once again putting the Governor into ‘Governor’s Dinner’, for providing us with yet more lasting memories of the Club’s marvellous hospitality.

Whenever you are enjoying the convivial ambience here, perhaps before lunch having leafed through a history of World War Two, be assured that the Club always carries with it Kaye’s and my very best wishes for the brightest of futures.

This is a truly great, progressive, while traditional Club, a real Queensland institution, and for its continuing success, I warmly thank our President, his committee, and you, our dedicated members.

Thank you.