This piece is authored by a guest writer.

The beauty of Australia’s Constitutional Monarchy is the absence of politics from the roles of Governor and Governor-General.

We were reminded of this during the Coronation of King Charles III.

Our system works because, at its zenith, the Monarch sits above and beyond daily politics. Crucially, the role is not above democracy, or greater than democracy. When used as intended, the figurehead roles afford a silent but steely defence against the imminent dangers of gluttonous political ego.

In Victoria, the political leadership does not find itself short on ego or electoral chutzpah.

It is with this ego that Labor increasingly illustrates its contempt for genuine democracy, and now, it would seem, the role of Victoria’s Governor.

We should remember that the Victorian Parliament shut down during Covid paranoia, creating what some coined a gang of eight. It was as autocratic as Australia’s democracy could be within the bounds of this political system.

During that time, we subsequently know that Labor spent $2 million of taxpayers’ money on polling, perhaps to help find the right words for the Premier’s daily sermons. Victorians were locked down – not because Labor was ‘guided by the science’ – but because the regime was guided by the polling.

The Premier’s Private Office, the PPO, morphed into a monolith with ‘tentacles’ spread throughout the Ministries and Departments. IBAC’s recent Operation Daintree report painted a worrying picture. As The Age reported in August 2021, the PPO sits ‘…outside the public service, (is) unaccountable to Parliament and not required to respond to freedom of information requests.’ I believe this directly challenges our Westminster system of government.

Former ALP Member of Parliament, factional nemesis, and now independent MP, Adem Somyurek, told the Victorian Parliament that walking into a government building was like walking into an ALP State Conference.

When giving evidence to important inquiries, Daniel Andrews famously could not recall central pieces of information.

He labelled his political opponents ‘irrelevant’.

He withdrew government advertising from major newspapers and has proposed redirecting it toward social media.

He is a republican.

He is of the socialist Left faction of his party, a party weighed down by internal scandals.

And most recently, his appointment of a fellow republican as the state’s next Governor has been met with a critical response. Others argue that as the next Victorian Governor, Professor Margaret Gardner should never have told us she is a republican.

Unlike her predecessor Governor Dessau, Professor Gardner has already entered a political debate over ‘unceded lands’: ‘Let me begin by acknowledging that we are standing here today on the unceded lands of the people of the Eastern Kulin Nations…’ she told the media, in her opening sentence.

The moment she was announced for the role, like Kevin Rudd as the Australian Ambassador to the US, Professor Gardner should have adopted the diplomatic code of that role. Many feel that she should have said nothing political and nodded only to the conventions set out by her position – for that is why it works.

The role of Governor is to rise above politics. It is to serve all from a position of apart from partisan politics and ideological conversations.

On August 9, Professor Gardner will become Victoria’s 30th Governor as the debate intensifies for the Voice to Parliament referendum. In recent days, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made it clear that he intends to use his mainland Labor Premiers to fight for the ‘yes’ case. Will he call on the Governors too?

If a candidate for Governor cannot remain silent and neutral on a referendum issue, they should not accept the role.

To that end, if a Governor wants a Republic to replace the Constitutional Monarchy, and then offers a public nod to concept of unceded lands, this strongly hints to a particular view on Sovereignty that undermines the office and political role that they have accepted.

The Governor is not a campaign cheer person for any cause other than Australia’s constitutional government.

The Victorian Premier is no doubt aware of the unspoken message he is sending with his appointment. It is a shame, as there are many distinguished Victorians who could have taken that role and fully engage with the spirit it embodies.

But this is Victoria – a state where the sanctity of political convention is respected by everyone else except Labor. The Labor Party prefers their look-over-there charade while Victoria’s finances burn like wildfire.

Victoria should not be playing politics with the role of Governor.

While he might have been talking about a country on the other side of the world battling the latest tsunami of Trump legalities, author Douglas Murray, in his always felicitous way, recently told Rita Panahi on Sky News Australia, that ‘…countries and democracies cannot survive when their institutions are so highly politicised and, at any time, they lose the trust of effectively half the population.’