Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales

The Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales is a government position in the state of New South Wales, Australia, acting as a deputy to the Governor of New South Wales.

The office was first created in October 1786, before the arrival of the First Fleet, to act as a deputy to the first governor, Arthur Phillip. At that time the office was filled by military officers.

From 1872 onwards this office was permanently filled by the Chief Justice of New South Wales but the position may be retained by the Chief Justice after his/her retirement from the Supreme Court of New South Wales .^[1]

Role

Originally, the lieutenant-governor had a legislative role with a seat on the first Legislative Council of New South Wales in 1824; this was later phased out due to the lessening of the powers of the state governor. The role of the governors are enshrined in part 2A of the New South Wales Constitution Act (1902).

The current role of the lieutenant-governor is to take up the duties of the governor if the governor dies, resigns, or is absent. This occurred most recently in September 2008, when, in the absence of Governor Marie Bashir, the lieutenant-governor, James Spigelman, administered the swearing in of the new cabinet of the Nathan Rees government.^[2]

If the lieutenant-governor becomes incapacitated while serving in the office of governor, the next most senior judge of the Supreme Court is sworn in as the administrator. This occurred in May 1973 when Sir Leslie Herron died suddenly while the governor, Sir Roden Cutler was overseas. Sir John Kerr became the administrator until Cutler was able to return.^[3]

The lieutenant-governors/administrators have no standing powers but stand ready to act in the governor's position. Three generations of the Street family have served New South Wales as lieutenant-governor.

Lieutenant-governors and administrators of NSW

No.	Governor	From	To
1	Major Robert Ross	24 October 1786	8 July 1792
2	Major Francis Grose	11 December 1792	12 December 1794 [4]
3	Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson	13 December 1794	1 September 1795 [5]
	Office vacant	20 September 1795	September 1800
4	Colonel William Paterson	September 1800[6]	26 January 1808
5	George Johnston[7]	26 January 1808	25 April 1808
6	Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph Foveaux	25 April 1808	9 January 1809
7	The Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Maurice O'Connell	10 January 1810	12 February 1814
8	Colonel George Molle	13 February 1814	12 September 1817
9	Colonel James Erskine CB	12 September 1817	25 February 1823
10	Colonel William Stewart	26 February 1823	23 March 1827
	Post abolished	24 March 1827	4 December 1837
11	Lieutenant-Colonel Kenneth Snodgrass	5 December 1837	23 February 1838
	Unknown	24 February 1838	12 July 1846
	The Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Maurice O'Connell	12 July 1846	2 August 1846
	Unknown	2 August 1846	21 February 1872
	The Rt Hon. Sir Alfred Stephen GCMG CB	22 February 1872	15 January 1891
	The Rt Hon. Sir Frederick Darley GCMG	16 January 1891	4 January 1910
	The Hon. Sir William Cullen KCMG KC	28 January 1910	27 January 1930
	The Hon. Sir Philip Street KCMG	28 January 1930	11 September 1938
	The Hon. Sir Frederick Jordan KCMG QC	12 September 1938	4 November 1949
	The Hon. Sir Kenneth Street KCMG QC	6 January 1950	19 February 1972
	The Hon. Sir Leslie Herron KBE CMG QC	22 May 1972	3 May 1973
	The Rt. Hon. Sir John Kerr AK, GCMG, GCVO, QC	16 May 1973	27 May 1974
	The Hon. Sir Laurence Street KCMG AC QC	28 June 1974	1 November 1988
	The Hon. Murray Gleeson AC QC	2 November 1988	31 March 1998
	The Hon. James Spigelman AC QC	1 April 1998	31 May 2011
	The Hon. Tom Bathurst AC	1 June 2011	Present

References

1. NSW Governor and Parliament Directory with Lieutenant Governor
2. "Nathan Rees looking to topple Morris Iemma this morning". livenews.com.au. 5 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-24.
3. Personal Details Sir John Kerr, State Records of NSW. Retrieved 4 January 2010
4. "Governors.". Portland Guardian and Normanby General Advertiser. Vic.: National Library of Australia. 6 January 1868. p. 4 Edition: EVENINGS. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
5. "Our Former Governors.". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 16 March 1895. p. 9. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
6. David S. Macmillan, 'Paterson, William (1755–1810)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 2, Melbourne University Press, 1967, pp 317-319. . Retrieved 27 July 2009
7. Colonial Secretary Index, 1788-1825, State Records of NSW. Johnston assumed the role on the arrest of William Bligh. Retrieved 27 July 2009

External links

• Official Website of the Governor of New South Wales