In particular the governor has the power to appoint and dismiss the premier of Queensland and all other ministers in the Cabinet, and issue writs for the election of the state parliament.

In June 2014, Queen Elizabeth II, upon the recommendation of then-Premier Campbell Newman, accorded all current, future and living former governors the title The Honourable in perpetuity.

[9] Unlike Fernberg, the original Government House was purpose-built and was used from 1862 to 1910; the building still exists today on the grounds of Queensland University of Technology's CBD campus.

However, up until 1977 the office was not formally recognised in Queensland legislation, with the powers of the governor set down in the letters patent and in an imperial order in council which preserved the effect of the Australian Constitutions Act 1842 (Imp) (the document that granted NSW a semi-elected assembly) as regard to the governor and restricted the power of the Queensland assembly to remove the position.

However, following the 1975 Dismissal crisis then premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson amended the Constitution Act 1867 (Qld) to replicate the provisions of the order in council.

This provision worked against Bjelke-Petersen when, in the dying days of his government in November 1987, he tried and failed to convince governor Sir Walter Campbell to remove several ministers to shore up his own support within Parliament.

[citation needed] The governor's standard comprises a Union Jack with a white roundel in the centre with the state badge of Queensland: a light blue Maltese cross, surmounted by a royal crown and surrounded by garland of laurel leaves.

The design for governors of Queensland was created and flown as a personal standard since 1876, when the Maltese cross was adopted as the colonial badge.

His successor, Sir Henry Abel Smith, the husband of the niece of Queen Mary, Lady May Abel-Smith, was British.