Today was down at my local oval to watch the game of cricket (50 overs) between an Australian womens team (The Governor General’s XI) and the South African womens team.
The locals chased down the visitors 7/203 of 50 overs with 8/204 from 48.1 overs. Very pleasant afternoon’s entertainment.
Cosgrove is down-to-earth local boy done very good.
He was a rifle platoon commander in Vietnam where he won the Military Cross for action in 1971.
As a major general he lead the INTERFET in a peacekeeping mission to East Timor in 1999.
He was named Australian of the Year in 2001.
In 2002 he became Chief of the Defence Force (i.e. Australia’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff).
He was appointed Governor General by Prime Minister Tony Abbot in 2014.
His security detail comprised two plain clothed bare headed guys, probably Australian Federal Police officers who weren’t obviously armed and were not let’s say in close proximity.
My son and I were watching the game from a near empty grandstand and he and Lady Cosgrove came up, sat down with us and chatted with us for 5 minutes before they moved along. Might have looked a bit like a boy, his Dad and an uncle. My son asked for a photo with him which he obliged.
I recall a quotation from Jed Bartlet in “The West Wing”
“I can’t move my motorcade from K Street to Connecticut without it showing up on a weather satellite!”
I was in Hodges Figgis in Nassau Street Dublin, last September. It’s probably the best general book store in Ireland. I was looking through the history section, and became aware there was someone beside me, the way you do.
I decided on a couple of books, and reached to get them.
As I reached, I looked around and saw that standing beside me was our President, Michael D. Higgins.
There was a guy in a raincoat standing nearby :- I’m guessing that was his driver/security guy. But honestly, if the nation’s head of state can’t go buy some books, what’s the point of being head of state ?
No, Australia widely considers the GG to be the head of state. This is a different position from some other Commonwealth realms, but not really wrong (and IIRC Australia vests more of the major constitutional powers directly in the GG).
Well actually it’s not and quoting a flawed Wiki entry doesn’t cut the mustard.
A peculiarity in the Australian Constitution compared to say Canada or New Zealand, is that all reserve powers and functions of the state are vested in the GG, rather than the Monarch.
Effectively Australia achieved independence from Britain in 1900 via some surreptitious legal chicanery without having all that fuss, bother and bloodshed of a War of Independence or similar unpleasantness.
The Queen of Australia’s singular constitutional role is to appoint and recall the Australian Governor General on the advise of the elected Prime Minister.
The Queen continues perform the constitutional duties of Sovereign and Queen of Australia; the Governor-General performs all of the duties of the Head of State including when the Monarch is in Australia.
There is no official head of state, the term is not mentioned in our Constitution.
The Governor General does not do “the same job as a head of state” they perform all the duties of a head of state. Constitutionally there is nobody else who could be head of state. The prime minister is head of government by convention, the office is not mentioned in the Constitution.
There is no point drawing parallels from other dominions or the US model.
It is simply a feature of the Australian Constitution.
