The two are very different, but then Australia’s population is diverse. Ms Bryce was the first woman to hold the job, and that was certainly overdue. She promoted human rights at the time when human rights needed a champion.
It
is true that a good number of military men have held the position in the past,
but General Cosgrove is cut from a different set of cloth than his uniformed
predecessors.
For
a start he has put himself about since retiring from the army in 2005. His
best-known work in this period was to head the recovery taskforce after the
devastation caused by Cyclone Larry in North Queensland in 2006, but he also
accepted the position of Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University and
has served on a number of boards, including that of Qantas.
He
has said that as Governor-General he wants to do a great deal of travelling,
not just to the State capitals and regional centres but deep into rural and
remote Australia and to play a role in closing the gap on Indigenous
disadvantage.
He
also has the common touch – and now I have to get to the real reason for
writing this blog: my personal recollections of the man.
During
his time as Chief of the Defence Force, I was a senior journalist on the Canberra Times. The newspaper was going
through a painful transition under its new owner, Rural Press, and I found
myself dabbling in a number of roles, including writing stories on defence and
the military generally in the vacuum caused by the retirement of the long-serving
Defence and Aviation Correspondent, the late Frank Cranston.
This
brought me into contact with General Cosgrove at a couple of ceremonial events
and for one interview, all successful enough, but then he always knew how to
handle the media and I can hardly say we were great chums.
A
few weeks later an overseas company was trying to sell helicopters to the ADF
and had arranged a public presentation at Old Parliament House in Canberra. I
was Business Correspondent by now, but having recently been involved in defence
matters was thought to be the best person to send along to get the story.
My
deadline was pressing but I was very politely told by the company’s officials
to shove off and wait until they had made their pitch. I noticed General
Cosgrove surrounded by the company’s senior marketers as you would expect, so
decided to hang around on the fringe of the group in a desperate attempt to
pick up some information at second hand.
To
my astonishment, Cosgrove, on noticing me said: “Hello Graham, glad you are here” and shook my
hand my hand, before resuming his conversation. Within one minute I had been
taken aside by a couple of the company’s leading executives and given all the
information I needed (and a bit more) for my story.
Was
it coincidence? Did the General just want to greet the journalist he had spent
a bit of time with in the past? Or was he genuinely helping out someone who he
guessed was in difficulties?
I
don’t suppose I’ll ever know. What I do know is that I am not going to quibble about
another former military man taking up residence at Yarralumla.
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