Daniel Andrews’ pick for Victorian Governor declares herself a republican

The Victorian Premier admitted to being a ‘republican’ but recognised Australia is ‘a constitutional monarchy’ while introducing the state’s new Governor-Designate.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces Margaret Gardner will be the next Governor of Victoria. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Professor Margaret Gardner’s first utterance as Victoria’s Governor-Designate has been to declare that Indigenous sovereignty of the land in which she now represents Charles III as King and Sovereign, was “never ceded”.

Accepting Premier Daniel ­Andrews’ request that she become Victoria’s 30th governor, the outgoing Monash University vice-chancellor proclaimed herself a republican, pledging to give the new role her “absolute all”.

Current Governor Linda Dessau is due to end what will have been an eight-year term as the first woman to hold the role on June 30, with Lieutenant-Governor James Angus to serve as acting governor until August 9, when Professor Gardner’s five-year term is due to start.

“Let me begin by acknowledging that we are standing here today on the unceded lands of the people of the Eastern Kulin ­Nations, and pay my respects to their elders past and present,” Professor Gardner told journalists who assembled for the announcement at state government offices in Melbourne’s Collins St on Monday.

The former chair of the Group of Eight universities and previously RMIT University vice-chancellor thanked Mr Andrews for the opportunity she said he had offered her after requesting to meet her last month.

“I give my commitment that I’ll give my absolute all,” she said.

“I am actually a republican, personally, but I recognise that we are living, currently, in a constitutional monarchy and we will do so until such time as the people ­decide otherwise.”

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA – NewsWire Photos, JUNE 5, 2023. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announces Margaret Gardner will be the next Governor of Victoria. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Professor Gardner said the current role of governor was “much different” from when it was originally conceived.

“Subject to changes in legislation that were made a few decades ago, the governor is not subject to following the advice, or subject to the veto of the King, so even our roles of government are different now from when we were first a constitutional monarchy, and I think that shows that Australia can learn and can change and may change the way these roles are understood in the ­future,” she said. “But I that I am here to serve the role as it is now, in the terms of the Constitution that we have now, and as I said, I’ll do our very best.”

Mr Andrews said he had not alerted King Charles to the fact that he had chosen a republican. “I didn’t necessarily broadcast that fact,” he said. “There are many different views, many different opinions, but we have constitutional arrangements, and we have to choose the best person at this time, and I think Professor Margaret Gardner as the 30th governor of Victoria is the best person for this job.”

Mr Andrews and Professor Gardner.

Professor Gardner holds a bachelor of economics and ­completed a PhD with a thesis on Australian industrial relations at Sydney University, and used a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship to study at Berkeley, MIT and Cornell.

The 69-year-old is married to Glyn Davis, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary and former University of Melbourne vice-chancellor.

Former Family Court judge Ms Dessau assumed the office of governor on July 1, 2015, succeeding Alex Chernov. Other Victorian governors of the past few decades include David de Kretser, John Landy and Sir James Gobbo.