Governor of Queensland

Governor of Queensland
Badge of the Governor
Incumbent Paul de Jersey AC QC since 29 July 2014
Viceroy
Style	His Excellency
Residence	Government House, Brisbane
Appointer	Australian monarch
Term length	At His Majesty's pleasure
Formation	10 December 1859
First holder	Sir George Bowen
Website	Office of the Governor

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.

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

Standard of the Governor of Queensland

Standard of the Governor of Queensland 1901-1952, bearing a Tudor crown

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.

No.	Image	Governor	From	To	Time in Office
1		The Rt. Hon. Sir George Bowen, GCMG	10 December 1859	4 January 1868	8 years, 25 days
2		Colonel Sir Samuel Blackall	14 August 1868	2 January 1871	2 years, 141 days
3		The Most Hon. George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby, GCB, GCMG, PC	12 August 1871	12 November 1874	3 years, 92 days
4		Sir William Cairns, KCMG	23 January 1875	14 March 1877	2 years, 50 days
5		Sir Arthur Kennedy, CB	20 July 1877	2 May 1883	5 years, 286 days
6		Sir Anthony Musgrave, KCMG	6 November 1883	9 November 1888	5 years, 3 days
7		Field Marshal Sir Henry Norman , GCB, GCMG, CIE	1 May 1889	31 December 1895	6 years, 244 days
8		The Rt. Hon. Lord Lamington, GCMG, GCIE	9 April 1896	19 December 1901	5 years, 254 days
9		Lieutenant General Sir Herbert Chermside , GCMG, CB	24 March 1902	10 October 1904	2 years, 200 days
10		The Rt. Hon. Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford, GCSI, GCMG, GCIE, GBE, PC	30 November 1905	26 May 1909	3 years, 177 days
11		The Rt. Hon. Sir William MacGregor, GCMG, CB	2 December 1909	16 July 1914	4 years, 226 days
12		Major Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams, GCMG, CB	15 March 1915	3 February 1920	4 years, 325 days
13		Lieutenant Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan, GCMG	3 December 1920	17 September 1925	4 years, 288 days
14		Lieutenant General Sir John Goodwin, KCB, KCMG, DSO	13 June 1927	7 April 1932	4 years, 299 days
15		The Rt. Hon. Sir Leslie Wilson, GCMG, GCSI, GCIE, DSO, PC	13 June 1932	23 April 1946	13 years, 314 days
16		Lieutenant General Sir John Lavarack, KCMG, KCVO, KBE, CB, DSO	1 October 1946	4 December 1957	11 years, 64 days
17		Colonel Sir Henry Abel Smith, KCMG, KCVO, DSO	18 March 1958	18 March 1966	8 years, 0 days
18		Sir Alan Mansfield, KCMG, KCVO	21 March 1966	21 March 1972	6 years, 0 days
19		Air Marshal Sir Colin Hannah, KCMG, KCVO, KBE, CB	21 March 1972	20 March 1977	5 years, 213 days
20		Commodore Sir James Ramsay, KCMG, KCVO, CBE, DSC	22 April 1977	21 July 1985	8 years, 90 days
21		Sir Walter Campbell, AC, QC	22 July 1985	29 July 1992	7 years, 7 days
22		Leneen Forde, AC	29 July 1992	29 July 1997	5 years, 0 days
23		Major General Peter Arnison, AC, CVO	29 July 1997	29 July 2003	6 years, 0 days
24		Quentin Bryce, AC	29 July 2003	29 July 2008	5 years, 0 days
25		Penelope Wensley, AC	29 July 2008	29 July 2014	6 years, 0 days
26		Paul de Jersey, AC, QC	29 July 2014	Present	10 years, 121 days

Living former governors

Four former governors of Queensland are alive, the oldest being Leneen Forde (1992–97, born 1935).

Name	Term as governor	Date of birth
Leneen Forde	1992–1997	(1935-05-12) 12 May 1935
Peter Arnison	1997–2003	(1940-10-21) 21 October 1940
Dame Quentin Bryce	2003–2008	(1942-12-23) 23 December 1942
Penelope Wensley	2008–2014	(1946-10-18) 18 October 1946

The most recent death of a former governor was that of Sir Walter Campbell (1985–92), on 4 September 2004.

List of Lieutenant-Governors of Queensland

The following are the lieutenant governors of Queensland:

Name	Term	Notes
Arthur Hunter Palmer	15 November 1895 — 9 April 1896	Lieutenant Governor Administrator
Samuel Griffith	21 December 1901 — 24 March 1902	Lieutenant Governor
Hugh Muir Nelson	10 October 1904 — 30 November 1905	Lieutenant Governor
Arthur Morgan	27 May 1909 — 2 December 1909	Lieutenant Governor
Arthur Morgan	16 July 1914 — 15 March 1915	Lieutenant Governor
William Lennon	3 February 1920 — 3 December 1920	Lieutenant Governor
William Lennon	17 September 1925 — 13 June 1927	Lieutenant Governor
William Lennon	8 May 1929 — 2 June 1929	Lieutenant Governor
Frank Cooper	24 April 1946 — 30 September 1946	Lieutenant Governor

External links

• Official Website of the Governor of Queensland