Sam Mostyn

speaker

313 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Aug 2026 last heard 1 Aug

Sam Mostyn’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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Full Story · Governor general Sam Mostyn on the ‘growing catastrophe’ in our democracy · 1 Aug 2026 podcast

I studied it as a practising lawyer.

So I've thought about this a lot.

And certainly before I came into office, I thought about those reserve powers.

And I read a lot of the history and spoke to a lot of constitutional legal friends of mine about that very question, because I knew that in my second year in office, we would be noting the 50th anniversary of November 11, 1975.

And I had read the letter that Sir John Kerr had presented to Gough Whitlam.

So I understood that.

And of course, that 50th year, there were many moments of commemorating that with all sorts of debates and roundtables.

And there'll be debates forever about the use of the powers.

My view is that what sits at the heart of the reserve powers is something that a constitutional expert many, many decades or

years ago said, his name was Badgett, he talked about the fact they're most powerful in their threat of use, not in the actual use.

So the fact they sit there as reserve powers, they are significant, but they are very circumscribed as to the moments they might be used.

And I cannot see the catastrophic issues that would need to be in play for me to intervene at all with those reserve powers.

I've thought about it deeply.

The issue for the Governor-General always is to maintain a respectful, workable relationship with

the Prime Minister and the Executive.

And one of the great powers I have is the right to be consulted, the right to caution, the right to warn.

And these are things where I can have conversations with a Prime Minister.

If I see things, if I'm picking up something, I have a conversation, I have the right to be consulted on matters and I have the right to warn and say, maybe there are things ahead that you need to think about.

And my primary role is to make sure that our representative government and responsible... I represent Parliament, our responsible government...

is doing what it needs to do and that at all times to think about the fact that in our democracy, the people who determine what they want to happen in parliaments is the Australian people.

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