Australia's First Female Governor General
BackCHEN: And moving onto Australia, which has a new governor general. She took her oath at a ceremony in Canberra today. Let's take a look. STORY: Quentin Alice Louise Bryce is the first woman in Australia to hold such office. Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd and his wife Therese Rein welcomed her to Parliament House where the sixty-six-year-old was sworn in. She was the governor of Queensland when Rudd recommended her to Britain's Queen Elizabeth. Bryce was one of the first women to be admitted to the Queensland bar and is known for her work with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The office of the Governor General was created in 1901 and represents the Queen in the Commonwealth. This position is currently seen as a ceremonial one, but if needed she has the power to appoint a prime minister if an election has resulted in a "hung parliament." In 1975, the governor general of the time dismissed the government amid a political crisis. This sparked a fierce debate in succeeding decades for Australia to move to become a republic.
Category: People
Uploaded: September 6th, 2008 @ 10:45 am
Author: NTDTV
Length: 01:01
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Views: 685
Tags: australia bar bryce commonwealth general governor house louise news ntd ntdtv parliament queensland
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