The nearest position Australia has to a 'President' is the Governor-General.

The current, Democratically unelected encumbent is Quentin Bryce, a pleasant lady with inpeccable Feminist credentials who smiles a lot in public, for a handsome taxpayer expropriated stipend.

She suffers, poor woman, from GCDS. (Glass Ceiling Deficiency Syndrome).

Prior to her exalted position she was the Discrimination Commissioner given to railing against men gathering together and excluding women from talk of the finer points of car engines, beer labels and Labour Party political chicanery.

Never having encountered a glass-ceiling in her life, she made it her life's mission to make sure every other woman reported finding one. The 'Men's Club', being the manufacturer of glass and ceilings, was a favoured target of her wrath, along with insistence that chaps clean toilets and pick up socks.

Now, in a massive display of hypocricy, the explanations for which will no doubt be forthcoming and rival the next Harry Potter book, she has joined a Power-Women-only club.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25996025-5006785,00.html


Quentin Bryce joins Lyceum Club in Melbourne



GOVERNOR-GENERAL Quentin Bryce, a former sex discrimination commissioner, has joined an exclusive women-only club in Melbourne at a time when the legality of single-sex clubs in Victoria is under review.

Ms Bryce's decision to accept honorary membership of the Lyceum Club coincides with a Victorian parliamentary review of whether such single-sex clubs deserve to remain exempt from the state's equal opportunity laws, The Weekend Australian reports.

The review follows recent controversy over Melbourne's single-sex clubs, with the city's exclusive men-only institutions such as the Melbourne Club and the Athenaeum Club being denounced as anachronistic by Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls.

Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, who holds the position Ms Bryce occupied in the early 1990s, has also weighed into the debate, declaring it is "not smart" for any institution that claims to reflect a city's elite to lock out half of the population.

A spokeswoman for Ms Bryce yesterday defended her decision to join the Lyceum Club.

"The Governor-General has no issue with men or women-only clubs or organisations," the spokeswoman said. (P. On account of her prerogative to change her mind when it suits her to have a spokes-woman say so)

"She is patron of numerous organisations specifically for women, such as the CWA, the Girls Brigade, Business and Professional Women Australia and the National Rural Women's Coalition."

The spokeswoman declined to comment on the "political" issue of the parliamentary review of single-sex clubs in Victoria except to note that such clubs were legal under equal opportunity laws.

Lyceum Club president Annie James said it was open to members to "invite people who are like-minded and can contribute to what the club stands for and can enjoy what the club offers".

The century-old Lyceum Club has almost 1200 members and is aimed at women "who are interested in the arts, literature, sciences and social concerns".

The Lyceum's August newsletter boasted about its glamour recruit.
"I am very pleased to announce that the Governor-General, Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, has accepted honorary membership of our Club," Ms James wrote.

"Hopefully she will be able to take advantage of our membership occasionally and see what treasures hide in Ridgway Place (the club's headquarters)."

In the next sentence, Ms James talks about the club's fight to defend its right to remain a single-sex institution under the exemptions to the Equal Opportunity Act.

The governor-general has traditionally been granted honorary membership of men's clubs such as the Athenaeum, however Ms Bryce has been shunned by such clubs because she is a woman.

Melbourne's men-only clubs have been criticised in recent months by Ms Gillard, who has taunted them for not accepting Ms Bryce as a member.

Read more on this story at The Weekend Australian.