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The Rt Hon Sir Ninian Stephen
Image:NinianStephen.gif <small/>
20th Governor General of Australia
In office 29 July 1982 – 16 February 1989
Preceded by	Sir Zelman Cowen
Succeeded by	Bill Hayden
Born	15 June 1923 Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

Sir Ninian Martin Stephen, KG, AK, GCMG, GCVO, KBE, QC (born 15 June 1923), Australian judge and 20th Governor-General of Australia, was born in Oxfordshire, England, and migrated to Australia as a child. He was educated at the University of Melbourne, but his studies were interrupted by World War II, in which he served in the Australian Army in New Guinea and Borneo. He completed his legal studies in 1950, and was called to the Victorian Bar in 1952. By the 1960s he was one of Australia's leading constitutional and commercial lawyers.

In 1970 Stephen was appointed a Justice of the High Court of Australia, and in the same year he was knighted. Although he was appointed by a Liberal government, he proved not to be a traditional conservative upholder of states' rights. He joined the "moderate centre" of the court, between the arch-conservatism of Sir Garfield Barwick and the radicalism of Lionel Murphy. In 1982 he was part of the majority that decided on a broad interpretation of the "external affairs power" of the Australian Constitution in the Koowarta case.

Later that year Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser appointed Stephen Governor-General. Like his predecessor, Sir Zelman Cowen, he was a "safe" choice: discreet, politically neutral and with a wide knowledge of constitutional law. When Fraser was defeated by the Labor Party under Bob Hawke in 1983, Stephen had no difficulty working with a Labor government. In 1987 Queen Elizabeth II on the advice of Prime Minister Hawke extended his term by 18 months, as a mark of personal respect and also to allow Bill Hayden (to whom Hawke had promised the position) to leave politics at a time of his choosing.

[edit] Honours

Stephen was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970, and sworn of the Privy Council in 1979. As Governor-General he was made a Knight of the Order of Australia, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. In 1994 the Queen Elizabeth II appointed him a Knight of the Garter. He therefore has the unusual distinction of simultaneously holding five knighthoods and joined Lord Casey as one of the few Australian Knights of the Garter. Sir Ninian Stephen delivered the first Sir Ninian Stephen Lecture at the University of Newcastle's Law School in 1993, giving his name to this lecture series.

Government Offices
Preceded by: Sir Zelman Cowen	Governor-General of Australia 1982–1989	Succeeded by: Bill Hayden

Governors-General of Australia	Image:Flag of Australia.svg
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