Leigh Sales interviews Quentin Bryce, Governor-General 2008-2014, on 7.30 (ABC TV). Neither in her introduction to the program, nor during the interview, did Sales once refer to the former G-G as “Dame Quentin”, the title bestowed on her, as she neared the end of her term, by our Head of State in England on the recommendation of then Prime Minister Tony Abbott in his ill-fated attempt to reinstate Australian knighthoods. We know that Bryce herself declines to use the title – see News of 6 December 2014 and link below (last paras). Bryce was chatting about her new book, a collection of letters written to her while she was the Queen’s representative, “Dear Quentin” – how Australian is that to refer to such an elevated public figure by her or his first name. WfaAR wonders what Marie Bashir is doing? [“Australia needs to ‘get real’ about domestic violence says Quentin Bryce” by Judith Ireland, Sydney Morning Herald online 6 December 2014]
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
