Residences and Household
Government House, Sydney, as the residence of the monarch, is the traditional official residence of the governor. The Governor's present day office is the historic Chief Secretary’s Building nearby, at 121 Macquarie Street.
On 16 January 1996, Premier Bob Carr announced that the next Governor would be Gordon Samuels, that he would not live or work at Government House and that he would retain his appointment as Chairman of the New South Wales Law Reform Commission. On these changes, Carr said: "The Office of the Governor should be less associated with pomp and ceremony, less encumbered by anachronistic protocol, more in tune with the character of the people." The State's longest serving Governor, Sir Roden Cutler, was also reported as saying: "It's a political push to make way in New South Wales to lead the push for a republic. If they decide not to have a Governor and the public agrees with that, and Parliament agrees, and the Queen agrees to it, that is a different matter, but while there is a Governor you have got to give him some respectability and credibility, because he is the host for the whole of New South Wales. For the life of me I cannot understand the logic of having a Governor who is part-time and doesn’t live at Government House. It is such a degrading of the office and of the Governor."
In October 2011, the new Premier Barry O'Farrell announced that the Governor, now Marie Bashir, had agreed with O'Farrell's offer to move back into Government House: "A lot of people believe the Governor should live at Government House. That's what it was built for ... t some stage a rural or regional governor will be appointed and we will need to provide accommodation at Government House so it makes sense to provide appropriate living areas". However, because Government House has not been a residence for fifteen years, O'Farrell also announced that the Governor will initially move into a smaller adjacent building, called the chalet, while refurbishments of the main wing occur, with a proposed move into the main house "before Christmas".
The Governors also previously had a summer residence, "Hillview", in Sutton Forest from 1885 to 1957. Hillview was put up for sale and purchased from the State Government by Edwin Klein in 1957. Hillview was gifted back to the people of NSW in 1985 and currently occupied by the Department of Planning through the Heritage Office.
The viceregal household aids the governor in the execution of the royal constitutional and ceremonial duties and is managed by the Office of the Official Secretary to the Governor, currently held by Noel Campbell. These organised offices and support systems include aides-de-camp, press officers, financial managers, speech writers, trip organisers, event planners and protocol officers. In this official and bureaucratic capacity, the entire household is often referred to as Government House. These departments are funded through the annual budget, as is the governor's salary of A$181,555.
Read more about this topic: Governor Of New South Wales
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