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The importance of being discreet and charming

By Greg Craven - posted Tuesday, 18 March 2008


It goes without saying, of course, that a government always is perfectly entitled to put someone sympathetic into Yarralumla. Provided the person is suitably eminent and dignified, there is no sin in appointing a friend as umpire.

The difficulty for a government wanting to look beyond these types of predictable backgrounds into the ranks of the exciting and the good is obvious. However uplifting such appointments may be, are they safe?

Particularly in Labor's case, many of the genuine heroes it may consider appointing have made their names through some form of activism. Activists have many virtues, but being quiet as you do what you are told is not among them.

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Take the three candidates publicly canvassed so far. I know, like and admire each of them, but all are strong, opinionated Australians with deep public views and commitments. It would be entirely unreasonable and implausible to expect any of them to embrace a life of vice-regal banality, but that is the job description.

Of course, some would ask, what is wrong with a feisty governor-general? This is like asking what you have against experimental brain surgeons. In our constitutional system, there can be only one person at the top. This has to be the prime minister, who has the unrivalled qualification for the job that he was elected to it on a platform of policy. There is no room for an unelected, unaccountable viceroy imagining themselves as the spirit of the nation.

Labor thinkers need to think hard about such things. It's not just that Rudd will face a potentially hostile Senate in the midst of looming economic difficulty, the exact recipe for 1975. Even a well-meaning but endemically talkative governor-general could play havoc with a government's policy positions.

Worse, the vice-regal office is at a low ebb after years of being shoved aside by a spotlight-seeking John Howard. It is critically important that the first years of the Rudd Government see it repackaged as what it should be: important, eminent, dignified but not politically engaged. This is particularly important as we move inexorably towards a republic, with the office of governor-general the obvious template for an Australian president.

Anyone can empathise with the Government's desire to appoint a female governor-general, but it should appoint a woman from a tried and tested background. Mercifully, Australia has more than its fair share of eminent female judges, lawyers, retired politicians and servicewomen.

Female or male, better safe than sorry.

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First published in The Australian on January 23, 2008



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About the Author

Professor Greg Craven is Vice Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Deputy Chairman, Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Reform Council, and a constitutional lawyer.

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