27 May

The Sydney Morning Herald interviews 50 “prominent” people, 14 of whom are women (click here), and asks them how the Governor-General should be chosen and their choice for the job. Women nominated were Lowitja O’Donoghue (former chair of ATSIC); Mary Gaudron (recently retired High Court judge); Dawn Fraser (former Olympic champion swimmer); Marie Bashir (Governor of NSW); Elizabeth Evatt (former chief judge of the Family Court and UN adviser); Professor Fiona Stanley (child health researcher and social commentator from WA, Australian of the Year 2003); Jocelyn Newman (former Minister in the current federal government). Poet, Les Murray, comments that he “wouldn’t wish the job on anyone.”