Former prime minister Paul Keating was a big fan of the late Lowitja O’Donoghue, but insists she was never in the frame to be Australia’s first Indigenous governor-general.

In a story that has gained wider exposure since Dr O’Donoghue’s death on February 4, Mr Keating is supposed to have tested the vice-regal waters with Dr O’Donoghue in 1995.