Sam Mostyn has been announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as Australia’s next governor-general. So what sort of woman is she, and why has her appointment sent the right wing media into a tizz?
It’s customary for the PM of the day to appoint a mate of some kind to this archaic position, either as a reward for services rendered, to keep them out of the way, or both. It’s also a good insurance policy against back-stabbing, although this doesn’t always pan out, once the new chief ribbon-cutter gets a taste of the good life at Yarralumla.
In the past, Ms Mostyn has worked for both Paul Keating and Anthony Albanese, but she also did a stint with Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, post-COVID, to assist in managing reforms of childcare and public sector parental leave.
She’s not the first GG with republican sympathies (that would be Bill Hayden), and not the first woman (Quentin Bryce preceded her), but she is probably the most well-rounded person to occupy the office, with lived experience across many areas and issues, including mental health (she was the chair of Beyond Blue), transport, telecommunications, the law, disabilities, insurance, sport (the Olympics and AFL), banking, the arts (particularly the music industry and theatre), gendered violence and climate change.
Canberra connections
Samantha Joy Mostyn is no stranger to Canberra, having been born in the city of roundabouts in 1965 and later studying arts and law at ANU. Her father was an army colonel who served in Vietnam after graduating from Duntroon.
She is a mover and shaker by anyone’s standards. She has served on an enormous number of boards, foundations and commissions, and in 2021 was named by The Australian Financial Review as Australia’s most influential company director, serving on boards with a market capitalisation of $480 billion.
So why do some of the rich list and their media mouthpieces hate her? It appears to come down to her activism. In the past, Sam Mostyn has told the truth about Australia’s history, describing 26 January as Invasion Day. She’s also spoken about the undervalued work of women in Australia, and understands the terrifying science of the climate crisis, through her work with the Climate Council, the Climate Change Authority and 1 Million Women.
A proud feminist, she is the latest recipient of a Grand Stirrer Award (previous winners include Brittany Higgins, Sally McManus and Destroy the Joint), and has also been recognised by the UN and as an Officer of the Order of Australia. The Mostyn Medal, awarded annually for best and fairest player in the women’s AFL competition in Sydney, is named after her.
None of this impresses Murdoch factotum and culture warrior Janet Albrechtsen one iota. The day after Mr Albanese announced Sam Mostyn would be replacing General David Hurley as governor-general, Ms Albrechtsen wrote that she lacked the relevant experience and shouldn’t have been offered the gig because she was female, before going on to suggest that the appointment was evidence of ‘one new group of oppressors putting the squeeze on a new group of oppressed’.
Queen Woke
The ultra-right wing astroturf group Advance put out a ridiculous press release entitled ‘Why Queen Woke’s appointment matters’, saying Mostyn’s appointment showed Albo’s ‘bad judgement and his contempt for you and your country,’ noting that she had ‘campaigned against the majority of Australians in the divisive Voice referendum’.
At the other end of the spectrum, someone who has direct experience of Sam Mostyn’s positive impact on the ground is the writer Mark Mordue, who commented after the surprising news that ‘Sam’s a total powerhouse’ with a genuine long-term commitment to mental health in the community, women’s rights, the environment, and literature, as well as corporate ethics and engagement.
He noted that her ‘full heart’ involvement in causes went beyond the symbolic to the personal, although it seems clear her new role will be largely symbolic. That’s not to say that symbols aren’t important.
Like the human appendix, it’s not quite clear what the governor-general actually does, but we know there can be severe consequences which things go wrong, as the examples of Sir John Kerr and Peter Hollingworth have shown. Perhaps, like Mikhail Gorbachev in the USSR, GG Mostyn will be the last of her kind, and will oversee the demise of her own expensive taxpayer-subsidised position? We will have to wait and see if Albo and friends have the courage to advance the republican agenda.
Sam Mostyn will take up her new appointment as the 28th governor-general of Australia in July.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning film-maker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
Long ago, he did work experience in Parliament House with Mungo MacCallum.
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