David Smith (public servant)

Smith was born in Melbourne to Polish Jewish immigrant parents named Szmitkowski ==Secretary to the Governor-General==

In January 1973, Smith was appointed acting Official Secretary to Sir Paul Hasluck, and on 20 July was made permanent Official Secretary. He later became the first Secretary of the Order of Australia on its establishment in 1975. Smith was forced to enter Parliament House through a side door and make his way to the steps from the inside. He read the proclamation, although the crowd's boos and chanting ("We want Gough!") drowned him out. It ended: Whitlam, who had been standing on the step behind Smith, immediately addressed the gathered media scrum and crowd with words that famously proclaimed his defiance: Smith served as Official Secretary until 1990, serving Sir Zelman Cowen, Sir Ninian Stephen, and Bill Hayden. He was later appointed a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the Australian National University for 1998 and 1999, and was a member of the 1998 Constitutional Convention. ==Views on the monarchy and Whitlam's dismissal==

In a lecture on "An Australian Head of State: An Historical and Contemporary Perspective", published as Papers on Parliament No. 27, March 1996, Smith mentioned that, in a previous lecture, Senator Baden Teague had spoken of the Queen as Australia's head of state and argued for her replacement by an Australian head of state, and that in his replies to questions after the lecture Teague had spoken of the Governor-General as "our head of state". Smith remarked that the switch from Queen to Governor‑General was "entirely automatic and unselfconscious", and that Teague was "not alone in his ambivalence". After mentioning other public references made to the Governor-General as head of state, Smith opined "The fact is that under our Constitution we have two heads of state—a symbolic head of state in the Sovereign, and a constitutional head of state in the Governor-General", and said that in his lecture he would discuss the roles of the Sovereign and of the Governor-General under the Australian Constitution, including some of the changes which had occurred in each of those roles since Federation. To conclude the lecture, Smith quoted the remarks of Sir Gerard Brennan, Chief Justice of Australia, on the oaths of allegiance and office: After retiring from public service, Sir David became a member of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy and frequently gave addresses on constitutional matters. He strongly defended Sir John Kerr and was highly critical of Gough Whitlam. In 2005 Smith published an account of the events of 1975 and the other constitutional debates, Head of State, which was launched by former Governor-General Bill Hayden. Smith later published his opinion that the dismissal had been the culmination of a political and not a constitutional crisis. ==Governor-General as head of state==

After his retirement in 1992, Smith asserted in books and lectures that the governor-general carries out the duties of head of state in his or her own right and not as the Queen's representative or surrogate. ==Life in retirement; death==

Smith lived in Canberra, where in a voluntary capacity he often led guided tours at Old Parliament House. He was father to three sons, Michael (financial services, Sydney), Richard (Commonwealth public servant, Canberra), Phillip (strategic architect, ICT, Oslo, Norway). David Smith died on 15 August 2022 at the age of 89. ==Honours==

• On 29 April 1977, Smith was made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) for his continuing service as Official Secretary. • On 9 June 1986, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for "service to the Crown, as Official Secretary to the Governor-General and as Secretary of the Order of Australia". • On 19 August 1990, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) at a private investiture at Balmoral Castle. Smith was also appointed a Knight of the Order of St John and has been awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal. ==See also==