Giving the Anna McPhee Oration for the Diversity Council of Australia at Federation Square in Melbourne, Sam Mostyn reviews her first year in office. She hopes people would see, “a continuation of tradition and ceremony established and exhibited by my predecessors, deep respect and understanding of the office of Governor-General, its relationship with the Crown, and the constitutional, parliamentary and legal frameworks that circumscribe (WfaAR italics) the responsibilities and powers of the Governor-General”. She also hopes that “secondly and simultaneously, they would see a thoroughly, modern approach informed by the experiences of the Australia and Australians I uniquely now have the privilege to engage with.” She repeats that the Prime Minister asked her to be modern, visible and optimistic and says she has spent a lot of time reflecting on the first word “modern” while striving always to be visible and optimistic.
Selfies, Instagram and social media aside, WfaAR comments that it is saddening to see – already more than 25 years into the 21st century – that we don’t have our own Head of State in the mould of the Irish President but one who is much constrained, as a representative of a foreign monarch, by tradition and the formal, ceremonial and legal practices established by her predecessors and precedent however well she carries out the role and however “modernly”. She looks to our Head of State, King Charles of England, who she says is “the model of a modern king.” We can only sigh. This is such a waste of talent and, by now, an exasperating veil of conservative confetti, laid on thickly, stifling the whole country’s advancement.
