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Australian Governor General Research Paper

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The Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia is representative of monarch, Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia.. The governor General follows the conventions of the Westminister system of responsible parliament and acts only on the advice of the current Prime Minister of Australia and his ministers. A major exception when the governor General excercised the reserve powers of the office, was the 1975 constitutional crisis, in which Sir John Kerr sacked Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. The Whitlam Labor government had received small majority in the house of represenattives, however the opposition had control of the senate, and blocked the passage ofappropraiaction bill. On the 11th of November 1975, Whitlam wanted to call a half-senate election attempting to break the deadlock, but when he went to seek Kerr for approval Kerr instead dismissed him as Prime Minister. Fraser then took his place. The governor Generals powers to appoint and dismiss governments are very controversial. Therefore there should be increased accountability of Governor Generals powers, and Kerr should have not acted in …show more content…

Conventions are unwritten rules not laws. The westminister parliamentary system is built upon these rules. A number of longstanding conventions were used and broken in the lead up to the 1975 constitutional crisis. The convention that the Senate would always pass supply was broken by the senate. The opposition used their numbers to block Whitlam’s budget. The convention that if the supply is blocked, the pm should resign or call an election was breached. The convention that the governor general only act on the advice of the ministers was broken, as Kerr sought advice from Opposition leader and Chief Justce Sir Garlfield Barwick. The governor general broke another convention when Kerr made Fraser pm, when he did not have the confidence of the

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