Dinner for Official Secretaries

Good evening, all.

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbal and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Graeme and I are delighted to welcome our interstate guests to Queensland and to Fernberg, Queensland’s Government House.

Fernberg is truly unique among Australia’s vice-regal residences, but those of us who live and work here are proud and pleased that this grand old lady has survived against the odds for 160 years. First built as a private home, in its long life it has experienced the extremes, from lavish indulgence to neglect, in response to our State’s story of boom and bust.

But for the past three decades, I’m pleased to note, it has been protected by State heritage legislation and has been loved and admired as our Government House since Sir William Macgregor became the first of my 26 predecessors to take up residence here in 1910.

Sir William spent four-and-a-half years as Governor of Queensland and in that time, was served by no fewer than three Private Secretaries. Such a level of staff turnover would certainly have created challenges, but appointing a new Private Secretary a century ago was far easier than recruiting a professional administrator with the governance and management skills required for the role all of you perform today as Official Secretaries.

One of the positive results of the increased professionalisation and formalisation of the role over the past century is that, with today’s recruiting procedures, it would be extremely rare to see someone like Lieutenant Colonel G.F. Bunbury appointed as Official Secretary.

The Governor of Queensland in 1937 was Sir Leslie Wilson and, because Bunbury had been on Sir Leslie’s staff in Bombay, Wilson apparently had no hesitation in appointing him again. Bunbury took up his post a month before Christmas that year, but just six weeks later, he resigned and moved to New Zealand, telling the press that he had left because he did not like Queensland, did not like the work, and there was no good trout fishing because the rivers were too muddy.

Fortunately, we also have, in Queensland, some fine models of exceptional service in the role of Official Secretary, beginning with the very first: Abram Orpen Moriarty.

Moriarty was a true servant of the public. Born in Ireland, he worked in the Colonial Secretary’s Department on arrival in Sydney and rose to the position of Commissioner of Crown Lands and Police Magistrate before being elected to the Legislative Assembly in New South Wales.

On the recommendation of Sir William Denison, the then Governor of New South Wales, he was appointed as Private Secretary to Sir George Bowen, the Governor who would oversee Queensland’s separation from New South Wales.

Moriarty first drafted the proclamation bringing Queensland into being as a separate colony, then read the proclamation on Separation Day. A week later, Bowen appointed him as Colonial Under-Secretary, a position in which he was able to apply his extensive experience and ability to establish the civil service and undertake a range of delicate and difficult tasks associated with the separation.

Ten months later, job done, Moriarty returned to Sydney and continued his career as a public servant.

The cumulative experience, knowledge and expertise around the table tonight is testament to the high standards of professionalism Australia enjoys in our vice-regal administrators today, and I commend and thank you all for your service and commitment to excellence. I think Abram Orpen Moriarty would proudly consider you his peers.