On Thursday 14 May 2009, at Government House, Canberra, the Governor-General Ms Quentin Bryce AC presided at a meeting of the Federal Executive Council.

Afterwards, the Governor-General and Mr Michael Bryce AM AE hosted a morning tea for the Association of Former Members of the Parliament of Australia. In the afternoon, in Sydney, the Governor-General, as guest of the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, Mr Allan Gyngell, attended a conference co-hosted by the Lowy Institute's Myer Foundation Melanesia Program and Care Australia on Tackling Extreme Poverty in Papua New Guinea. In the evening, at Admiralty House, Sydney, the Governor-General hosted a reception for participants of the conference on Tackling Extreme Poverty in Papua New Guinea.