Letter from Sydney: As a monarchist Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, will not have been happy with events of the past few weeks. The public unravelling of an appointment made by him has been responsible for putting the republic back on the political agenda.
It was Howard who chose Peter Hollingworth, the former Anglican archbishop of Brisbane, as governor-general, the British queen's representative and therefore the de facto head of state in Australia.
Hollingworth resigned last Sunday over the controversy surrounding his handling of child sexual abuse cases when he was archbishop.
The manner of his going and the length of time it took him to go - allegations that he allowed a paedophile priest to continue working first emerged in December 2001 - confirmed to the public what they already knew: Hollingworth was one of the most pompous, arrogant people ever to hold public office in Australia.
On a TV programme in February 2002 he attempted to rationalise a past sexual relationship between a priest in his 30s and a schoolgirl of 14 at an Anglican boarding hostel. He said: "There was no suggestion of rape or anything like that. Quite the contrary, my information is that it was, rather, the other way around."
An attempt to clarify exactly what he meant shortly after the programme aired was a disaster. His written statement said that a young girl, in such a circumstance, might have been "a willing participant" in the affair.
Showing a remarkable ability to not learn from the past, earlier this month Hollingworth claimed, in a separate case, that an under-age girl "started" a relationship with her adult abuser.
The governor-general also declined to appear before an Anglican church inquiry into how he had handled sex abuse cases when he was Brisbane's archbishop. He sought a suppression order when a woman sued him in a civil case, claiming she had been raped by him 40 years ago (a case that was dismissed by the Victorian Supreme Court after the woman took her own life last month).
A private spin doctor was engaged to advise Hollingworth on how to handle the scandal which has driven him from office. Taxpayers footed the bill of $900 Australian (€500) a day. The advice given was either very poor or, true to form, Hollingworth did not listen. A video production team was hired to film his statement, saving him the onerous task of actually speaking to journalists.
In office, Hollingworth made it clear that letters to him were to be addressed to His Excellency the Right Reverend Dr Peter Hollingworth AC OBE (his doctorate is an honorary one in theology). When introduced to him you were to refer to him as Your Excellency or Dr Hollingworth. His predecessor as governor-general, the much-loved Sir William Deane, was happy to be known as Bill.
A year ago Hollingworth acknowledged that his failure to dismiss a paedophile priest when he was archbishop was "a serious error of judgment". But the statement he issued when he resigned said that the allegations against him were "unwarranted and misplaced".
Having refused constant opposition calls to dismiss him over the past month, the Prime Minister still stood by his man when speaking about him in parliament this week. Mr Howard expressed his "respect and admiration for all of the good work that Peter Hollingworth has done for his fellow Australians over a life of 68 years".
Hollingworth is not leaving office empty-handed. He will get a yearly pension of $185,000 (€112,000), free air travel, a Commonwealth car service, an office and a full-time assistant.
The office of governor-general has been around since Australia became a federated nation on January 1st, 1901. It was not until 1930 that there was an Australian-born governor. The prime minister of the time, James Scullin, whose parents were Irish, upset King George V by proposing that Isaac Isaacs, a distinguished Jewish-Australian High Court chief justice, get the job. Scullin insisted, and Isaacs's appointment set the precedent for future governors being named on the PM's advice.
Before the Hollingworth situation, the biggest scandal in the office was in 1975 when the governor-general, Sir John Kerr, dismissed the Gough Whitlam-led Labor government.
The Australian Republican Movement (ARM) has said it is not seeking to take advantage of Hollingworth's resignation, but it must be privately indulging in at least a little Schadenfreude. How could they not when their greatest nemesis, John Howard, appointed the man who brought the republic issue back to the table? If they cannot use the vice-regal crisis to get the general public interested in the idea of Australia becoming a republic, then they are not doing their job.
One of the reasons the republic referendum was defeated in 1999 was that the loudest proponent of it, ARM, was seen by people as an organisation of "silvertails" (wealthy elitists). If the outgoing governor-general has not managed to reverse that received wisdom then no one can.
In the meantime, Mr Howard still gets to pick the next governor-general and has refused to consult the opposition.
