Can the Queen of England fire the prime minister of Australia?
score:34
Theoretically, yes.
The prime minister is appointed by the governor-general, who is the representative of the Australian monarch (currently Queen Elizabeth II). The queen could instruct her representative to appoint a new prime minister at any time. (If the governor-general refused, the queen could appoint a new governor-general.)
In practice, however, the governor-general usually only appoints a new prime minister as advised by Parliament or a resigning prime minister.
(In a rare exception to this practice, in 1975 the governor-general dismissed a prime minister whose party held a majority in the House. (Wikipedia))
Also in practice, the monarch usually only appoints a governor-general that has been nominated by the prime minister.
It's important to remember that Elizabeth doesn't have these powers as queen of England, but as queen of Australia. Legally, Australia is a monarchy, with its own royal family. It happens to be that this royal family resides in England, and that the queen of Australia is also queen of several other countries, but only for historical reasons.
Upvote:3
- The Queen Cannot sack the Prime Minister of Australia.
- In 1975, (I was there) the Governor General did NOT sack the Prime Minister, he has no power to sack the Prime Minister.
- What can happen is this. If the Parliament cannot get legislature through parliament, due to blockage of the other side. Again and again. And 'supply is blocked'... i.e. money to be allocated, Parliament comes to a standstill. The Prime Minister can approach the Governor General and request a 'Double Dissolution' Both the Upper and Lower houses are disbanded, and a new election for both upper and lower houses are called for. This is what occurred in 1975. Whitlam couldn't get legislature through. There was an election, and Malcolm Fraser and Liberals were voted in.
Upvote:6
The Queen (or King) of England is a constitutional monarch, a ceremonial figure whose powers are strictly circumscribed by the constitutions of England (or other Commonwealth countries).
In THEORY, the "chain of command" goes from the queen, to the governor-general of the Commonwealth, to the Prime Minister of Australia. In actual fact, the queen and governor general will do what the Australian (or English) Parliaments tell them to do.
So the queen does "hire and fire." But not of her own volition, but as a result of the constitutional process.
The short answer is "she does," (what she is told to do) but "she can't" (on her own).
Upvote:23
Section 61 of the Constitution says "The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the Queen and is exercisable by the Governor-General as the Queen’s representative [...]".
Prime Minister Robert Menzies had to pass a Parliamentary standing order specially for Queen Elizabeth to be able to open Parliament when she visited Australia in 1954 because he received legal advice that, based on the above wording of the Constitution, that power was exercisable only by the Governor-General, not the Queen. So, for the Queen to open Parliament while she visited, a standing order had to be passed through Parliament: "When Her Majesty the Queen is present in Australia and intends to indicate in person the cause of the calling together of Parliament, references in this chapter to the Governor-General shall be read as references to Her Majesty the Queen." Note that this standing order relates only to the opening of Parliament, and is only effective when the Queen is present in Australia.
Constitutionally, the Queen can't exercise the executive power required to dismiss the Prime Minister - only the Governor-General can do this. The Queen can instruct the Governor-General to dismiss a Prime Minister (and, it's worth noting that there's no constitutional or legal requirement for the Governor-General to follow the Queen's instructions), but she can't dismiss the Prime Minister herself.
More post
- 📝 Where were the Straits dollars printed?
- 📝 When was King Alfred first called 'Alfred the Great'?
- 📝 What turns a man into a tyrant?
- 📝 Where can I find more information on the Katyn massacre?
- 📝 What is the origin of oak leaves in military insignia and decorations?
- 📝 How long did it take for mail to get to London from New York in 1919?
- 📝 Has there ever been a serious effort to reform the US Electoral College system?
- 📝 In 19th century India, pre and post Raj, did any private British citizens actually own land in India?
- 📝 Unemployed people in ancient Rome
- 📝 In the USSR, what if any was the formal, ideological response to the Cultural Revolution in China?
- 📝 What is the history of organizing militaries primarily through semi-permanent units as opposed to individual positions?
- 📝 Could some of the Titanic passengers have climbed on the iceberg to survive?
- 📝 What is the oldest example of conurbation?
- 📝 Were the heavy war reparations on Germany after World War I the main cause of its hyperinflation in 1923?
- 📝 Did the Tlingits benefit from resisting the Russians more than other Alaskan tribes?
- 📝 What was the reason for the Ottoman invasion of Otranto?
- 📝 If the nazi is a far-right party, why is it socialist?
- 📝 Was the Volga really Russia's last line of defense before the Urals?
- 📝 Were concentration camp guards allowed to talk about their work at home?
- 📝 What was the role of Konstantin Rokossovsky during WW1?
- 📝 Did archers lay on their back to draw bows?
- 📝 What were birthdays like in Medieval times?
- 📝 How do I find the sources which determined the year of the fall of Babylon?
- 📝 What was a "searcher" associated with a funeral in 1690?
- 📝 How did Taganrog escape the devastation of the Stalingrad batlle of WW2?
- 📝 Was Jesus depicted as dark skinned during the beginning of Christianity
- 📝 Was Lenin's 'Socialism and Religion' a reaction to something specific? What?
- 📝 What is the story of this kamon?
- 📝 What was Cemetery ridge named for?
- 📝 What was the estimated population of the Mississippi Valley before contact with Europeans?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Can the Queen of England fire the prime minister of Australia?
- 📝 Why did PvdA and not KVP provide the prime minister in the Kabinet Drees-Van Schaik (1948-1951), despite KVP being the largest party?
- 📝 Is the former adviser to the prime minister Dominic Cummings related by marriage to Andrew Wakefield?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 Was England called England in the days of King Arthur?
- 📝 How did the general population of England convert so smoothly to Protestantism?
- 📝 If the Union Jack joins the flag of England and Scotland, why does it have a different shade of blue than the Scottish flag?
- 📝 Why did the Royal Society in 1771 believe that a continent further south than Australia should exist?
- 📝 Why did Chamberlain remain Prime Minister of Britain until 10 May, 1940?
- 📝 Can anyone identify the military branch and rank of the man in the front row? This is from Germany @1932
- 📝 Did the aborigines of Australia and the Maoris in New Zealand know about each other's existence, before the Europeans came?
- 📝 How many times did the the sacred fire of Vesta die?
- 📝 What did Tacitus write about Nero and the Great Fire of Rome 64AD?
- 📝 Why did Canada, Australia and New Zealand separate from the UK?
- 📝 What is the name of the theory that says an early discovery can stop technological development?
- 📝 Why M.K. Gandhi preferred Nehru for Prime Minister candidate and not Sardar Patel?
- 📝 How long did it take for a letter to arrive in England in the 1830s?
- 📝 Did a Japanese medieval castle withstand US battleship fire during the Pacific War?
- 📝 How long would it take to travel from England to western Africa in the late 1890's?
- 📝 Can you identify the ship in this picture?
- 📝 Why did the negotiations between Henry V of England and France fail?
- 📝 Can anyone identify the regiment and rank from this WWI photograph?
- 📝 Can history shed any light on the "secret arts" of the Egyptian magicians who turned their staffs into serpents as claimed by Exodus 7:11-12?
- 📝 Which general rebuked the King of England over logistics?
- 📝 Why did the kingdoms of Scotland and England merge?
- 📝 Which fruits and vegetables did Chinese migrants introduce to Australia during the gold rush?
- 📝 Did the Roundheads/Commonwealth of England receive any ideological sympathy abroad?
- 📝 What is the oldest musical composition that can still be listened to today?
- 📝 Was the Somerset Decision in 1772 in England the real underlying cause of the American Revolutionary war?
- 📝 How can I properly learn the history of a country whose language I don't speak or read?