Model of style and substance

QUENTIN Bryce will bring a certain elan to Yarralumla.

'WHY aren't you home with your five children, cooking dinner?' Across the common room, Kay Saunders flinched as she overheard a male academic baiting her colleague Quentin Bryce, the first woman to lecture in law on staff at the University of Queensland 40 years ago.

But Bryce -- to be sworn in as Australia's first female governor-general on Friday -- kept her legendary composure.

"She was given a terrible time by those men in the law faculty," recalls Saunders, now director of the Brisbane Institute. "They were shocking -- rude and sarcastic -- but she never lowered herself to their level. She had a steely, pleasant demeanour and is not given to spiteful comments or losing her cool."

How the tables have turned.

Members of the diplomatic corps, justices of the High Court, the Prime Minister and members of parliament will gather in the Senate chamber to witness Her Excellency's oath of allegiance as she steps up to the highest office in the land.

Kevin Rudd's choice of a fellow Queenslander -- and a woman -- as guardian of Australia's Constitution has turned the spotlight back on to a position rendered largely invisible since Peter Hollingworth's contentious resignation in 2003.

What sort of governor-general will Bryce be? An outspoken social agitator in the mould of William Deane? A-word-in-your-ear networker whose influence is off the public radar? Or a photogenic show pony more interested in pomp than politics?

"If there are opportunities to speak out about injustices, I'm sure she will, but she won't do it at the expense of the office," her long-time friend, academic and businesswoman Wendy McCarthy, told Inquirer yesterday. "She's been very concerned about human rights. We know she has a passion for children and women. I think she'll be very strategic about what she does."

Feminist scholar Dale Spender, who got to know Bryce when she became a neighbour in Brisbane's St Lucia 20 years ago, reckons the new governor-general will wield her influence behind the scenes. "Networker is her middle name," Spender tells Inquirer.

"She makes inroads quietly, quietly, quietly. She's very good at bringing people into the tent. She thinks I'm pretty brash and keeps telling me, 'You always get much further by negotiation and quiet diplomacy.'

"I don't think she'll ever get involved in politically contentious issues (but) ... would speak to anybody she thought was influential in terms of ending injustice and unfair treatment."

Spender relates how Bryce, a mother of five and now a grandmother, forced changes to hospital policies restricting parents' visiting hours. "I remember when her little boy had leukemia and went into hospital and they said parents could not stay beyond visiting hours," she says. "I think she got a mattress and put it in Tom's room and wouldn't leave. She singlehandedly changed that policy throughout Australia." During her five years as governor of Queensland, Bryce regularly visited the Royal Children's Hospital in Brisbane to read to sick children.

Apart from a recent pledge to champion Aboriginal rights, Bryce's public pronouncements have attracted little coverage in the mainstream media. Rather, reports have concentrated on her impeccably chic appearance (reportedly she has never owned a pair of jeans, and always travels with an iron) and high staff turnover.

After Bryce's arrival at Government House in Brisbane in 2003, eight senior employees -- including the executive officer, secretary, office manager, head chef, house manager and gardener -- left.

"She's a control freak," one of the disgruntled workers tells Inquirer on condition of anonymity. "The way it normally works is the governor does governor things, and the office of the governor looks after the Government House estate. But she wanted to be involved in everything, from what type of flowers were being planted, to the type of furniture being purchased, to the exact menu being served. She's all sweet and understanding in public, but in private it was a whole different ball game."

Even before getting the keys to Yarralumla, Bryce has created a stir in Canberra by ousting the official secretary, Malcolm Hazell, who had served Hollingworth as well as the incumbent, Major-General Michael Jeffery.

A long-time friend of the Prime Minister, career diplomat Stephen Brady, will take on the job of managing the governor-general's 85 staff. Brady's partner, Peter Stephens, is personal adviser to Kevin Rudd's wife, Therese Rein.

Bryce declined to be interviewed for Inquirer but McCarthy yesterday defended her friend's management. "I don't think she's a control freak," she says.

"There are just a lot of people -- especially in jobs like that -- who do not like change. Quentin's whole family cares about style and design, so of course they would want things done in a way that is stylish."

Bryce's architect husband, Michael, is a much-decorated design and branding consultant who was an adviser for the Sydney Olympics and has also advised the International Cricket Council. It was serendipitous that the couple's elegant engagement party was held at Government House in Brisbane, where Michael was aide-de-camp to the then Queensland governor, Henry Abel Smith.

"It's like she was born to do it," Spender says of the governor-general's gig. "It's a job that needs charm and grace and empathy and patience and shrewd, astute judgment, because you're also a political figure without any political platform. I reckon if there was a contest between the Queen and Quentin Bryce, Quentin would win."

One of her first official duties in her new post will be to decide which of the 200-plus organisations will remain under the governor-general's patronage.

Rob Hubbard, president of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Queensland, praises Bryce's common touch.

"She really got involved," he says.

"She was caring and empathetic but was willing to offer real, tangible support in helping with fundraising. And she makes people feel very special."

Tony Fitzgerald QC, the former Federal Court judge who transformed Queensland political life with his corruption inquiry in the 1980s, studied law with Bryce at the University of Queensland in the '60s and still keeps in touch. "I'd say she was very down-to-earth, very obviously intelligent and well-spoken, good-humoured," he recalls of their time in law school.

"There are no false airs and graces that I'd ever observed. She was always very comfortable in herself."

While never a "chain-yourself-to-the-bar or burn-your-bra" type, Fitzgerald says, she was "an ardent feminist". He reckons Bryce will be an excellent governor-general: "It can't be an easy job, constantly being on your best behaviour, but she seems to have been in good form and is doing it (in Queensland) with grace and style."

The only time Bryce was seen to lose her cool was during her time as sex discrimination commissioner in 1993, when she apologised for a handwritten memo in which she had criticised a complaint as "another example of a male wasting our time with trivia".

Public servant Alex Proudfoot had complained to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission that Bryce had "fobbed off" his complaint that the provision of women's health centres in the ACT breached the Sex Discrimination Act.

Bryce apologised, saying she had scribbled the memo "in the heat of the moment". The commission cleared her of any wrongdoing.

Australian Council of Civil Liberties president Terry O'Gorman hopes that Bryce -- a former vice-president of the Queensland branch in the late '70s -- will wade into the civil liberties debate.

"She could engage in -- without taking sides -- the charter of rights debate," he says. "But her track record has been primarily women and discrimination issues. She was very much protocol-driven as a governor. While she made speeches, they were not controversial."

As a former state governor, commonwealth sex discrimination commissioner, Geneva-based human rights diplomat and law lecturer, the 65-year-old Bryce brings credentials to the viceregal position that are as impeccable as her designer clothes and coiffed hairdo.

McCarthy says Bryce may claw back some of the more visible ceremonial duties -- such as opening conferences, congratulating national heroes and leading national mourning -- that former prime minister John Howard took upon himself.

"I'd think the Prime Minister would be foolish if he didn't give the governor-general plenty of opportunity to play her role, and I'm sure he will," McCarthy says.

"He knows she's diplomatic, bright, presentable and she knows the protocol inside out. And she will understand all the legal and constitutional issues, which I think is a huge advantage in the job.

"She's really looking forward to it. She was incredibly overwhelmed and incredibly honoured, and now she's incredibly excited."