By Tim Dick
QUENTIN Bryce briefly lost her composure yesterday when one of her granddaughters confessed to pulling faces and flashing her undies while her grandmother was fronting the cameras.
The visible horror of the woman set to become Australia's next governor-general didn't last, and she continued to play with the offending offspring with a grandmother's easy laugh.
Her daughter, Chloe Bryce, says her mother is patient and measured, and, if so, she's well-qualified for a visible but impartial office.
Ms Bryce, now Queensland's Governor, carefully considered whether to take the job, but it was clear yesterday the only reluctance she had was the separation from her large, close-knit family. It was also the reason for the only emotion she displayed during the media conference in the lush grounds of Queensland's Government House.
Asked if she would miss Brisbane, her family's base, she paused, before saying: "I'm looking forward to living in that beautiful city of Canberra and I'm looking forward to coming home to Queensland from time to time, (and) getting to know the whole of this magnificent country better."
The state's 24th Governor has never disguised her long-standing parochialism. Asked if the rest of the country should be concerned that a fiercely proud Queenslander was heading for Yarralumla, she said: "Not at all, we Queenslanders do see ourselves as Australians."
The lawyer and former sex discrimination commissioner has months left as Governor, and speaks of her next job diplomatically, both to avoid partiality and in apparent acknowledgement that there is an incumbent, Major-General Michael Jeffery.
She declined to reveal her views on Australia becoming a republic saying only that she anticipated a "robust, stimulating debate" when the republic issue next arose.
When asked if she would be the last governor-general, she said she didn't know. Instead, she thought the job was about bringing people and communities together, and she nominated indigenous issues for particular attention when her term begins in September.
"Like very many Australians, I've been looking into my heart and asking what is the contribution that I can make in 2008 to advancing the wellbeing of indigenous Australians," she said. "That's something I've been involved in for a generation now and I want to do more there."
Her tenure as Governor is generally admired, despite some minor controversies that briefly excited the Brisbane media, including an exodus of personal staff, hosting her son's wedding at Government House and presenting the Medal of the Order of Australia to her husband, Michael. Mr Bryce, who was with his wife yesterday, was recognised for services to design in the 2006 Queen's Birthday honours list, which is determined by an independent council.
Earlier, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd dismissed concerns on ABC radio in Melbourne about appointing a fellow Queenslander to the nation's highest appointed office. "Well, she's spent a fair bit of her career in Sydney," he said. "But, then again, in Melbourne, I suppose, that's another crime against humanity."