A former military officer and decorated war hero was sworn in today as the Queen’s new representative in Australia.

THE Governor General of Australia announced yesterday he has offered to resign as nominal head of state following rape accusations and separate allegations that he did not act against child-abusing clergy when he was an Anglican Church archbishop in the 1990s.

The British Queen’s representative to Australia said today he had offered to resign as Governor General – the country’s nominal head of state.

Beleaguered Peter Hollingworth, the Queen’s representative in Australia, was under more pressure today, amid reports that he wrote a letter saying an alleged child sex abuse victim initiated a relationship with the alleged abuser.

Australia’s Prime Minister John Howard today defended the governor general, saying critics of the Queen’s embattled representative were forgetting his work with the country’s poor.

The Governor-General of Australia – the Queen’s representative in the country – has temporarily stood aside until a rape allegation is heard in court, Prime Minister John Howard announced today.

Anglican bishops joined calls for the Queen’s representative in Australia to resign today, only hours after prime minister John Howard met the monarch in London.

Australian governor-general Peter Hollingworth, under fire for allegedly covering up child sex abuse while he was an Anglican archbishop, left a children’s welfare charity today.

Less than two weeks before the Queen arrives for an Australian tour, the governor general in Canberra is fighting renewed allegations he covered up child sex abuse in the Anglican Church.

Australian child protection activists today called on the British queen’s representative to resign over an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse at a girls’ school a decade ago.