On Thursday 1 February 2007 at Government House, Canberra, the Governor-General His Excellency Major...

On Thursday 1 February 2007 at Government House, Canberra, the Governor-General His Excellency Major General Michael Jeffery AC CVO MC presided at a meeting of the Federal Executive Council.

In the afternoon, the Governor-General attended a ceremony and administered the requisite Oath of Office to the Honourable Greg Hunt MP, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Earlier, the Governor-General and Her Excellency Mrs Marlena Jeffery received the Chairman of the Council for the Order of Australia, the Honourable Sir James Gobbo AC CVO and Lady Gobbo. During this week, the Governor-General received Australia Day messages from the Heads of State of the following countries: Poland, Pakistan, Belgium, Brunei Darussalam, Germany, Lebanon, India, Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Greece, Sweden, Syria, the Czech Republic, the Philippines, Croatia, Bhutan, Austria, Israel, Bangladesh, the United States of America, the Vatican, Bahrain, Switzerland, Bulgaria, the Republic of Korea, the People's Republic of China, the Netherlands, Singapore, Dominica, Japan, Mauritius, Jordan, Sri Lanka, Uruguay, Tunisia, Luxembourg, Italy and Spain. Messages were also received form the United Nations, Myanmar, and Qatar.