In January 1973, Smith was appointed Acting Official Secretary to Sir Paul Hasluck, and on 20 July was made permanent. He later became the first Secretary of the Order of Australia on its establishment in 1975. After Hasluck's retirement, Smith then served Sir John Kerr and was present at the time of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Following the dismissal of the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, on 11 November 1975, Smith read out the proclamation of the dissolution of parliament on the steps of the then Parliament House in Canberra: After Smith read the proclamation, Whitlam spoke to the large crowd that had gathered and indirectly referred to David Smith: Smith served as Official Secretary until 1990, serving Sir Zelman Cowen, Sir Ninian Stephen and Bill Hayden. He was later appointed a Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the Australian National University for 1998 and 1999, and was a member of the 1998 Constitutional Convention.
Views on the monarchy and Whitlam's dismissal
In a lecture on "An Australian Head of State: An Historical and Contemporary Perspective", published as Papers on Parliament No. 27, March 1996, Smith mentioned that, in a previous lecture, Senator Baden Teague had spoken of the Queen as Australians' head of state and argued for her replacement by an Australian head of state, and that in his replies to questions after the lecture Teague had spoken of the Governor-General as "our head of state". Smith remarked that the switch from Queen to Governor‑General was "entirely automatic and unselfconscious", and that Teague was "not alone in his ambivalence". After mentioning other public references made to the governor -general as head of state, Smith opined "The fact is that under our Constitution we have two heads of state—a symbolic head of state in the Sovereign, and a constitutional head of state in the Governor-General", and said that in his lecture he would discuss the roles of the Sovereign and of the Governor-General under the Australian Constitution, including some of the changes which had occurred in each of those roles since Federation. To conclude the lecture Smith quoted the remarks of Gerard Brennan, Chief Justice of Australia, on the oaths of allegiance and office: After retiring from public service, Sir David became a member of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy and frequently gives addresses on constitutional matters. He is an ardent defender of Sir John Kerr, and highly critical of Gough Whitlam. In 2005 Smith published an account of the events of 1975 and the other constitutional debates, Head of State, which was launched by former Governor-General Bill Hayden. Smith later published his opinion that the dismissal had been the culmination of a political and not a constitutional crisis.
Governor-general as head of state
Smith has, since his retirement in 1992, argued publicly in books and lectures that the governor-general carries out the duties of head of state in his own right and not as the Queen's representative or surrogate. He notes that between 1992 and 1999, in part of Bill Hayden's time as Governor-General, the Commonwealth Government Directory listed the function of that office in these terms: "Under the Constitution the Governor-General is the Head of State in whom the Executive Power of the Commonwealth is vested." Smith noted that in 2009, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the Governor-General as the Australian head of state, by saying, "A visit to Africa of this scale by Australia's Head of State will express the seriousness of Australia's commitment".
Life in retirement
Smith lives in Canberra and can often be found at Old Parliament House leading guided tours. He is father to three sons, Michael, Richard, Phillip.
On 9 June 1986, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for "service to the Crown, as Official Secretary to the Governor-General and as Secretary of the Order of Australia".
