Style His Excellency Formation 10 December 1859 | Appointer Australian monarch First holder Sir George Bowen | |
 | ||
Residence Government House, Brisbane Term length At Her Majesty's pleasure | ||
The Governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the Queen of Australia. In an analogous way to the Governor-General of Australia at the national level, the Governor performs constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level. In particular the Governor has the power to appoint and dismiss the Premier of Queensland and all other Ministers in the Cabinet, and issue writs for the election of the state Parliament.
Contents
- Official residence
- Constitutional provisions
- List of Governors of Queensland
- Living former governors
- List of Administrators and Lieutenant Governors of Queensland
- References
The current Governor, Paul de Jersey, was sworn in on 29 July 2014.
As from June 2014, The Queen, upon the recommendation of then-Premier Campbell Newman, accorded all current, future and living former Governors the title 'The Honourable' in perpetuity.
Official residence
The Governor of Queensland has resided at Government House, Brisbane since 1910. The mansion, set in 14 hectares of gardens and bushland in the Brisbane suburb of Bardon, is also known as "Fernberg". Unlike Fernberg, the original Government House was purpose-built and was used from 1862 to 1910; the building still exists today on the grounds of Queensland University of Technology.
Constitutional provisions
The office of Governor is established by the Constitution of Queensland. Section 29 of the Constitution as passed in 2001 provides that the office of Governor must exist and be appointed by the Sovereign, but parts of the earlier Constitution Act of 1867 relating to the Governor are still in force owing to the double entrenchment of them within the constitution by the government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who feared that the office and powers of State Governor might be abolished following the controversies of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis at a federal level.
In accordance with the conventions of the Westminster system of parliamentary government, the Governor nearly always acts solely on the advice of the head of the elected government, the Premier of Queensland. Nevertheless, the Governor retains the reserve powers of the Crown, and has the right to appoint and dismiss Ministers, issue pardons, and dissolve Parliament.
The Queensland constitution expressly provides that the Governor is not subject to direction by any person and is not limited as to the Governor's sources of advice on the appointment or dismissal of Ministers (s. 35), another provision inserted by the Bjelke-Petersen government in the wake of the 1975 federal dismissal. This provision worked against Bjelke-Petersen when, in the dying days of his government in November 1987, he tried and failed to convince Governor Sir Walter Campbell to remove several ministers to shore up his own support within Parliament. When the parliamentary wing of the National Party deposed Bjelke-Petersen and elected one of the dissident ministers, Mike Ahern, as new Leader of the National Party, Sir Joh initially refused to resign as Premier and Sir Walter resisted calls to dismiss him. Sir Joh elected to resign on 1 December 1987.
The Governor is head of the Executive Council, a Queensland equivalent to the Federal Executive Council. The Council is composed of ministers from the government of the day. The Chief Justice of Queensland and other judges in the Queensland judicial system are appointed by the Governor acting on the advice of the Executive Council.
List of Governors of Queensland
The first Australian- (and Queensland-) born Governor of Queensland was Lieutenant-General Sir John Lavarack (appointed 1946). His successor, Sir Henry Abel Smith was British. All subsequent governors have been Australian-born, except for Leneen Forde, who was born in Canada but who emigrated to Australia at an early age.
Living former governors
Four former governors of Queensland are alive, the oldest being Leneen Forde (1992–97, born 1935).
The most recent death of a former governor was that of Sir Walter Campbell (1985–92), on 4 September 2004.
List of Administrators and Lieutenant-Governors of Queensland
Administrators and Lieutenant-Governors are deputy roles generally appointed to carry out the duties of the Governor when the Governor is unavailable, due to travel or illness. The following are the Administrators and Lieutenant-Governors of Queensland: