If I have to have a powerless ceremonial figurehead, I want my powerless ceremonial figurehead to be as well educated as all the other powerless ceremonial figureheads.
Seriously though, I want my Head of State to be someone I can respect as much as I respect our current Governor-General: Quentin Bryce, AC, and State Governor: Professor Maria Bashir AC, CVO. These talented, high achieving, and charming women are merely our Head of State's representatives in our Country and State respectively.
A little background:
Governor-General: Quentin Bryce, AC:
Quentin Alice Louise Bryce, AC, (born 23 December 1942) is the 25th and current Governor-General of Australia (the first woman to hold the position) and a former Governor of Queensland. Born in Brisbane, Queensland, as Quentin Strachan, she spent her first years in Ilfacombe, with her family subsequently living in a number of country towns around Australia. She attended the University of Queensland, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws, becoming one of the first women accepted to the Queensland bar.
In 1968 she became the first woman to be a faculty member of the Law school where she had studied, and in 1978 she joined the new National Women's Advisory Council. This was followed by a number of positions, including the first director of the Queensland Women's Information Service, the Queensland director of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 1988. Her services to the community saw her appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988, and a Companion of the Order of Australia and Dame of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 2003.
Bryce was appointed the Governor of Queensland in 2003. Although some concerns were raised during her time in the position, her five-year term was to be extended until 2009. However, on 13 April 2008, before the completion of the initial five years, it was announced that Bryce was to become the next Governor-General of Australia. The decision was generally well received, and on 5 September 2008 Bryce was sworn in, succeeding Major General Michael Jeffery, becoming the first woman to be the Governor-General.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quentin_Bryce
Governor: Professor Marie Bashir AC, CVO:
Professor Bashir, the first woman to be appointed Governor of NSW, took up her office on 1 March 2001.
Born, of Lebanese descent, in Narrandera in the Riverina district of NSW, and educated at Narrandera Public School and Sydney Girls High School, Marie Bashir gained her bachelor degrees in medicine and surgery in 1956 from the University of Sydney.
Dr Bashir taught at the Universities of Sydney and NSW, increasingly working with children's services, psychiatry and mental health services, and indigenous health programs. At the time of her appointment as Governor of NSW, she was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney (a post she took up in 1993); Area Director of Mental Health Services Central Sydney (from 1994); and Senior Consultant to the Aboriginal Medical Service, Redfern (from 1996) and to the Aboriginal Medical Service, Kempsey.
Professor Bashir's widespread involvements and interests have included juvenile justice, research on adolescent depression, health issues in developing countries, education for health professionals and telemedicine and new technologies for health service delivery. Along with many professional medical association roles, she was, at the time of her appointment as Governor, a member of societies as diverse as Amnesty International, the National Trust, the NSW Camellia Research Society and the Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Centre, as well as being a patron of the Sydney Symphony and Opera Australia. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988 for her services to child and adolescent health; and was invested by Her Majesty, the Queen, with the insignia of a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 2006.
http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/resourcesSystemTheGovernorofNewSouthWales
Is William Windsor suitable to be my head of State? When stacked up against these two outstanding human beings, young William pales into insignificance. He may be the elder son of the current Prince of Wales and therefore the future King of the UK, but I respect, and assess, people based on their demonstrated skills and achievements, not because of who their parents chanced to be.
I am glad that by the time William is the King of the UK, it will not be an issue for my country, for by then we will have one of our own numerous outstanding citizens representing us, and us alone, on the world stage.