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33.

87 The statutory reference to "the official establishment of the GovernorGeneral" can therefore be taken for practical purposes now to be synonymous with the organisation that the Governor-General Act has since 1999[1] referred to as "the Office of Official Secretary to the Governor-General", constituted by the Official Secretary and staff employed by the Official Secretary[2]. The Governor-General Act now spells out that "[t]he function of the Office is to assist the Governor-General"[3]. It now places the Official Secretary in relation to the management of the Office of Official Secretary to the Governor-General in like position to that of a Secretary in relation to the management of a Department[4].

88 Whatever the outer limits of the statutory reference to "the official establishment of the Governor-General" might at any earlier time have been, the holder from time to time of the office of Official Secretary must always have been squarely within it. The Official Secretary acting in his or her official capacity could always have been expected to have had responsibility for keeping records created or obtained by the Governor-General in his or her official capacity. The Official Secretary acting in his or her official capacity could also always have been expected to have had responsibility for assisting a newly appointed Governor-General with the transition to office and for assisting a retiring Governor-General with the transition from office.

"property"

89 Property is not "a monolithic notion of standard content and invariable intensity"[5]; it is not "a term of art with one specific and precise meaning"[6]. It is "a term that can be, and is, applied to many different kinds of relationship with a subject matter". The relationship with a subject matter is in some contexts best

  1. ↑ Public Employment (Consequential and Transitional) Amendment Act 1999 (Cth).
  2. ↑ Section 6(2) of the Governor-General Act.
  3. ↑ Section 6(3) of the Governor-General Act.
  4. ↑ Section 6(4) of the Governor-General Act.
  5. ↑ Yanner v Eaton (1999) 201 CLR 351 at 366 [19], quoting K Gray and S F Gray, "The Idea of Property in Land", in Bright and Dewar (eds), Land Law: Themes and Perspectives (1998) 15 at 16.
  6. ↑ Kennon v Spry (2008) 238 CLR 366 at 397 [89].
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