Governor-General Quentin Bryce has publicly backed both Australia becoming a republic and same-sex marriage in a landmark speech in Brisbane.
Ms Bryce, delivering the final Boyer Lecture of the year, said she hoped Australia might become a nation where “people are free to love and marry whom they choose”.
“And where perhaps, my friends, one day, one young girl or boy may even grow up to be our nation’s first head of State,” she said.
Ms Bryce was appointed as Australia’s first female governor-general in 2008 by then prime minister Kevin Rudd.
While there is no set length for the appointment, most last around five years.
Ms Bryce used her address to call for a nation where “an ethic of care guides the way we lead”.
“Where the young, the elderly, Indigenous, the newly-arrived [and] people with disabilities are treated with dignity and respect and are able to be the best and healthiest they can be.”
The governor-general is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the prime minister.
Author: ABC News
Publication: ABC News
Date:22 November 2013