Talk:Governor of Western Australia

No Governor for 17 years
''The post of Governor was not filled between 1931 and 1948. Sir James Mitchell held the posts of Lieutenant-Governor and Administrator 1933-1948.''


 * Why was the post not filled for so long? --  JackofOz 03:16, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

If I recall correctly, the W.A. government was determined that Mitchell be appointed to the position, but the British government was equally determined not to ratify the appointment of a colony-born. Hesperian 04:35, 11 September 2007 (UTC)


 * How humiliating for the Brits when Mitchell was finally appointed governor in 1948. But that seems to fly in the face of the appointment of Sir Isaac Isaacs as Governor-General in January 1931.   That appoinment must have been settled months earlier, in 1930.  So if King George V was prepared to accede to JIm Scullin's wishes and acknowledge that the Australian PM was the sole person fit to advise the monarch on Australian matters, what was the sticking point when it came to the Premier of WA advising on the appointment of the WA Governor?  --  JackofOz 07:40, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

This appears to be a question that will reward further research. I think I have the answers somewhere on my bookshelf. I shall get back to you. Hesperian 07:43, 11 September 2007 (UTC)
 * James Mitchell (Australian politician) has "As a result of financial difficulties during the great depression, Tasmania had appointed a lieutenant governor in the 1930s. With the approval of all major political parties, in July 1933 Mitchell was appointed Lieutenant Governor, and although he resided in Government House, he drew no salary. In this role, he was effectively the governor of the state. He held the Lieutenant-Governor position until he was finally appointed Governor of Western Australia in 1948. He retired as Governor in June 1951, and died only a month later."TRS-80 (talk) 08:22, 13 July 2008 (UTC)


 * That makes a lot of sense. Thanks.  I've slightly expanded that explanation (it could have been read that he was Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania rather than WA; etc).  --   JackofOz (talk) 08:33, 13 July 2008 (UTC)

Head of State
The High Court settled this in 1907. The Governor of a State is the head of state. Likewise the Governor-General. See the relatively simple decision here. Amplified here. --Pete 01:07, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

The WA Governor's website states "The Governor is the Head of State of Western Australia and represents the people of Western Australia in welcoming visiting Heads of State, royalty, ambassadors, spiritual leaders, members of the consular corps of Western Australia, and members of the general public who serve the State."This has been on the website (at least) since 2018, it is in line with all other State governors except Queensland, the High Court says he's the head of state, the Governor says he's the head of state, but one Canadian editor says all those high dollar folk have their heads up their bum. --Pete (talk) 06:47, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
 * An RFC was held on this topic, last year & the result was "governors are no heads of state. If you're going to start up this push again? We'll head over to the Australian notice board. You've been making these same old argument before, going back years. Multiple RFCs have gone against you. GoodDay (talk) 06:51, 26 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Yup, game over. Errantios (talk) 09:30, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Numbering of Governors
I note that the Governors are currently numbered such that there are said to have been 32 governors. In this respect, Sir William Robinson is counted as the 9th, 11th and 13th Governor. However, in his official press statement announcing the appointment of the next Governor, the Premier considered that the next Governor will be the 31st Governor, not the 33rd as Wikipedia would have it.

There seems to be some conflicting precedent on the issue. For example, Prime Ministers of Australia who served more than one non-consecutive term (Alfred Deakin, Andrew Fisher, Robert Menzies) are not counted twice in the list of Prime Ministers. However, among Presidents of the United States, Grover Cleveland, the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms is counted as the 22nd and 24th President.

I suppose I am looking for some clarification from others about why particular counting methods are adopted in each case and, in the case of the Governor of Western Australia - the numbering evidently adopted by the Premier (and therefore the government of the day) should be preferred in Wikipedia. Shadow007 (talk) 05:26, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * This issue arises quite often. It is general practice, world-wide as far as I know, for the ordinal number a person is given when they first occupy an office to remain the number they keep, no matter how many future broken periods they may serve.  The sole exception is the USA, who renumber their incumbents with each separate period.  It makes no sense to number our Prime Ministers the standard way, but number WA Governors the American way.  This should be changed to reflect the numbering used by the Premier.  Robinson should be counted as the 9th, 9th and 9th governor, not the 9th, 11th and 13th; and all future governors will need to be renumbered so that the new guy does indeed turn out to be the 31st and not the 33rd.  --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]  08:10, 23 March 2011 (UTC)


 * In fact, I've gone ahead and made the change. Thank you for bringing this to notice.  --   Jack of Oz   [your turn]  08:21, 23 March 2011 (UTC)

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Badge of the Governor
This evening I received an email confirmation from the Deputy Official Secretary (Amelia O'Sullivan) stating that the badge of the governor has now changed to have the Tudor crown in lieu of the St Edwards crown. The flag has however not changed as yet but will be in time. Nford24 (PE121 Personnel Request Form) 09:43, 24 August 2023 (UTC)