Farewell to Queensland

Each time, there is a responsibility to listen carefully, speak gently and choose my words well; to acknowledge, support and celebrate; to engage; to reflect; to say things differently; to see what has been overlooked; to be silent.

These exchanges are the precursors to action, change, and empowerment. They are the foundation of our relationships, our communities, our public roles, our democracy, and our civilised society. They are the treasured pine cones and old toy sheep we offer one another, and hope will make a difference.

When I started in this role, I thought about my own offerings gathered and exchanged over the years, how I could share them, what I was hoping to be for you.

I returned to my experiences of leaders I’d admired and tried hard to emulate. I thought of the values that underpinned their leadership, and dug deep to find them in myself.

Integrity, forgiveness, empathy, freedom, restraint, generosity, courage, and faith.

I soon discovered that their most abundant reservoir is in the community I was appointed to serve; that I had as much to learn as I had to offer.

Ladies and gentlemen, our State Constitution and constitutional conventions certainly bring structure and prescription to the vice-regal role. But it is those other duties - the ceremonial and public - that are largely without instruction: that are left to the incumbent to decide upon their shape and presence, their energy and direction.

When we become entitled by office to work and reside in one of our State’s finest and most cherished public buildings, our first duty is to you, its custodians: to open its doors wide and often, so that you may enjoy its beauty and observe its place in our passage; so that you may have a forum in which to bring light to your community effort; so that you may build relationships with colleagues and friends across familiar and strange ground; so that you may find solutions, break new ground; so that you may have the opportunity, as I have, to witness the workings of our community, and the threads that bind us.

Each footprint and voice brings fresh layers to the building’s heritage, and to our understanding of one another.

A few years ago, Karuna Hospice asked me to help them celebrate the restoration of their heritage home at Windsor. When I spoke, I offered the words of one of their volunteers, Susan Addison, author of the profoundly touching Mother Lode.

I think of those words again now when I express my wish for Government House:

May this house be a home
Where moods are mellow
Where laughter refreshes
Where friendships are nurtured
Where forbearance tempers anger
Where wisdom balances wit …
A dreaming place
A place of plenty
A haven of peace
A repository of memories
A maker of moments
A cocoon of contentment
A sanctuary.