Governor of NSW gives rare interview to community broadcaster

Wed, 6 June 2018

The visit, which followed National Volunteer Week, featured meetings with long-serving volunteers of the Glebe-based station who enjoyed a light morning tea prepared by students of Ultimo TAFE hospitality school.

 During the visit, the Governor and Mrs Hurley, read newspaper articles for The Australian and The Newcastle Herald respectively, as well as being interviewed on their roles. During his interview, the Governor spoke of the relevance of his role in today’s society.

“In the constitution of New South Wales, we have an Executive defined and the Governor is part of that Executive. As a representative of The Queen in NSW, NSW being a sovereign entity under the Federation, I assent to all laws the parliament may pass, and I do that on Her Majesty’s behalf.”

“As critical and as important as the constitutional and ceremonial roles are, it’s the community engagement which takes up 90 per cent of my time with Linda. That involves engagement with the community of NSW, both in the broader Sydney area, and of course, rural and regional NSW. Is it a busy job? Last calendar year we undertook 1,017 events, so that’s appointments, calls, Government House receptions, and visits to organisations across the state. So it’s quite a busy role and the vast majority of that is in the community engagement section.”

Mrs Hurley, who has an avid interest in music, composed, dedicated, and sang, a song about 2RPH detailing the services of the station and its volunteers.  Mrs Hurley was later interviewed about her passion for music to be broadcast for the 2RPH program Ablequest. The Ablequest program examines developments in assistive technology and initiatives for those people living with a wide range of disabilities and will air on 2RPH on Friday, June 8.

Chair, Di Collins and Deputy Chair, Maria Issaris Walsh greeted the Governor and Mrs Hurley and General Manager Sancha Donald welcomed the assembled guests and commented on the significant contribution the station’s volunteers make and the increasing popularity of community radio.

“The visit by the Governor and Mrs Hurley recognises the strong role of volunteers who love the spoken word, reading and quality journalism,” she said. “The visit also recognises people who love radio, with listenership for radio in Australia climbing to 88 per cent of the population.”

For more photos of the visit, please go here.