Governor-General David Hurley on the power of hugs and harmonies
He’s the man taking the measure of a nation hit by drought, bushfires and a pandemic, while grappling with reconciliation. Governor-General David Hurley says difficult times still lie ahead, but the heart of Australians shouldn’t be underestimated.
NSW
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David Hurley is missing hugs. And patting shoulders, and shaking hands, and all the other gestures of comfort and support the Governor-General instinctively wants to offer the bushfire-devastated Australians he meets.
But the physical distancing requirements imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic mean this ex-army general has to suppress his man-of-action tendencies, for now at least.
“I’m a big fan of the movie Gladiator,” General Hurley, 66, says with a smile, “You know, ‘Strength and Honour’.”
He thumps his right fist on his chest, above his heart. “Maybe that would work as a gesture.”
Wednesday this week marked one year in office for the 27th Governor-General of Australia and his wife Linda, and in March they suddenly found themselves spending more time together than ever before, after a long career in which the General was always either away on deployment or working long hours on military bases.
“I used to dream of having him home,” Mrs Hurley says wistfully.
“I used to say that to my girlfriends and they’d say: ‘Linda, be careful what you wish for.’
“It was an adjustment. I didn’t (previously) ever have to wait for him to get out of the bathroom because he’d gone to work by the time I got out of bed.
“And when we were at Government House the first couple of days, I got up to go to the bathroom and David was in the bathroom. And he says: (in a bright singsong voice) ‘Good morning, how are you?’ And I just looked at him and said: ‘I don’t talk this early in the morning.’ So it was an adjustment.”
The pair have now been working together for six years, since Gen Hurley was appointed Governor of NSW.
The NSW governorship was dominated by the drought gripping the state, and the Hurleys quickly became used to visiting communities enduring serious hardship.
That’s when Mrs Hurley has begun a new vice-regal tradition: public singalongs.
“Who’s heard of our ‘thank you’ song?” she asks on Wednesday this week at the Wingello Mechanics’ Institute, at the start of a two-day tour through the bushfire-affected towns of the Wingecarribee shire. David Hurley puts his hand up. Everyone else freezes.
Mrs Hurley explains she believes deeply in the power of singing to unite and comfort.
“When you sing to someone, you’re giving them a gift,” she says, explaining the crowd of ruddy-faced Rural Fire Service volunteers, local dignitaries and one schoolgirl will now be required to sing the chorus of ‘You are My Sunshine’ three times.
What’s more, Mrs Hurley wants them to make eye contact with someone else. “Sing it to someone,” she says brightly.
So they do, at first shy, then embarrassed, then slightly more confident and by the third round, everyone is in full voice and ready for a spontaneous round of laughing applause.
Last September when the pair first began visiting bushfire-affected communities, Mrs Hurley said.
“We had a little grandson who was a week old. And I remember coming home and cuddling him and thinking, what has my grandson been born into? I couldn’t believe it. The devastation and the fires and the people that we met and the stories they had to share. And I’ll never forget them.”
Now General Hurley’s main job, he says, is to listen to the aftermath of the “triple whammy”: drought, bushfires and now the pandemic. He’s particularly interested in the fine detail — which he summarises in letters to federal and state Ministers, detailing where he thinks things are going well or not — and the mental health of the recovering communities.
“It’s going to be tough times. And I’m sure all our governments will be doing their best to get us through this. But we will have high unemployment … and I think it’s really important to take some of the lessons from our recent experiences about being kind to each other, rediscovering what being neighbours are all about, keeping an eye out for each other and looking after ourselves, you know, putting your hand up if you do need help or support,” he says.
“There’s no shame in coming forward to say ‘We just need a bit of a talk or a helping hand a direction on something. Where do I go?’ Because at the bottom of all this, we will get through it. We will be a better country and better people for it. I’ve got every confidence in that. But it’s gonna be hard.”
The onslaught of hardship reminds him of Australia in the 1920s, he says, when World War I was followed by the deadly Spanish flu pandemic and then a global depression.
“I’ve got no doubt that post-World War One, we were a traumatised society. People would stay at home, or went to Diggers’ rest homes, which were really a bit hidden from society. They had treatment, but it wasn’t visible. Everyone knew about it, but it wasn’t spoken about. Whereas these days we’re a lot more frank about it.”
Many of the conversations in town halls and devastated bush blocks turn to climate change, Gen Hurley says.
“My impression would be that more people than not would think this is a consequence of climate change. And you hear that discussion around,” he says.
“I’ll be interested to see what evidence comes before the Royal Commission in relation to this and what we draw from that. But again, I don’t think there’s one answer.
“Hazard reduction has a role but it’s only part of the solution for preparation in the future. There will be discussions about how we manage our national parks and state parks.
“This is a good opportunity to sit down with some level heads and work out what are the major causes and how do we address those in the future.”
The General, who cares deeply about reconciliation, joined a boxing gym in inner-city Redfern when he became NSW Governor and spent his early mornings working out with a police-run training group of local Aboriginal young people — connections he still keeps up.
“We’ve got to acknowledge what’s happened in the past. I think there should be an apology, but it’s an apology as a step of reconciliation and reconciliation is two-sided: the request for forgiveness and it’s the offer of forgiveness,” he says, adding he thinks the proposal of an Indigenous Voice to parliament “might help. I don’t know for sure”.
“I see a lot of work, great work being done with Aboriginal youth. And I frankly have the view that if we miss this opportunity with this generation, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves. We’ve got some great youngsters out there who want to see a different world for their people. Agreeing what that is, is another part of the discussion.”
Gen Hurley is firm on one matter: tearing down statues is not the answer.
“A lot of people call for truth-telling. You don’t create truth-telling if you destroy the truth. To me it’s a very poor intellectual argument to say pulling these statues down answers our problems. It doesn’t,” he says.
“I don’t think it’s the appropriate step to be taking. Let’s tell the truth. And the truth is there’s good and bad in everything. I just don’t like people going to absolute positions and then arguing the case from there because it’s not the way the world operates.”
COVID-19 left many bushfire towns feeling the rest of Australia had moved on and forgotten them, Gen Hurley says.
“This is still an issue for us nationally. And we talk about a sense of being abandoned. I don’t think that they’ve been abandoned, of course, but they’re not being the front of mind in the last few months.”
Gen Hurley was particularly struck on one of his earlier visits by a lady who told him there was “vicarious value” to the visits.
“When we hug somebody, the nation hugs through us. I thought it was a lovely description,” he says.
“I’m not a psychologist but it’s a bit like when you go through that cycle when you get really bad news. Different people are at different parts of that cycle. But what I see in most people is a longer term optimism: we chose to live here for a reason. We’re going to get back here and get ourselves sorted out.”