page_title: 1975 Australian constitutional crisis
section_title: Constitutional
hierarchical_section_title: 1975 Australian constitutional crisis / Background / Constitutional
caption_attribution_description: English: Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia
context_page_description: The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, also known simply as the Dismissal, has been described as the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australian history. It culminated on 11 November 1975 with the dismissal from office of the Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party, by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, who then commissioned the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal Party, as caretaker Prime Minister.
  Whitlam's Labor government had been elected in 1972 with a small majority in the House of Representatives, but with the balance of power in the Senate held by the Democratic Labor Party, who usually supported the Liberal-Country Opposition. The 1974 election resulted in little change. While the Whitlam Government introduced many new policies and programmes, it was also rocked by scandals and political miscalculations. In October 1975, the Opposition used its control of the Senate to defer passage of appropriation bills needed to finance government expenditure, which had already been passed by the House of Representatives.
context_section_description: As established by the Constitution of Australia, the Parliament of Australia is composed of two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate, together with the Queen. The monarch is represented through the Governor-General, who has the executive power granted in the Constitution, as well as rarely exercised reserve powers. The reserve powers are those exercised by the Governor-General without requiring advice, which is usually signified by the phrase "Governor-General in Council".  Under The Australian Constitution the Governor-General acts 'with the advice of the Federal Executive Council' in the appointment of government ministers, although ministers serve at his pleasure, and the Executive Council is appointed by the Governor-General alone. The Governor-General is ordinarily bound by convention to act only upon the advice of the government and the Prime Minister, but can act independently and against advice in exercising the reserve powers. The Governor-General can be removed by the Queen on the advice of the Australian Prime Minister. As Liberal Party leader Malcolm Fraser, who would play a large part in the crisis, put it, "The Queen has tenure, and she couldn't be sacked. But a Governor-General holds office at pleasure, and if he ceases to please then he can be removed by a Prime Minister".
  As in most Westminster system parliaments, Australia's government is ordinarily formed by the party enjoying the confidence of the lower House of Parliament, the House of Representatives. However, Australia's Parliament also has a powerful upper house, the Senate, which must pass any legislation initiated by the House of Representatives if it is to become law. The composition of the Senate, in which each state has an equal number of senators regardless of that state's population, was originally designed to attract the Australian colonies into one Federation. The Constitution forbids the Senate from originating or amending a money bill, but places no limitation on the Senate's ability to defeat one. In 1970, Gough Whitlam, as Leader of the Opposition, stated of a budget bill, "Let me make it clear at the outset that our opposition to this Budget is no mere formality. We intend to press our opposition by all available means on all related measures in both Houses. If the motion is defeated, we will vote against the Bills here and in the Senate. Our purpose is to destroy this Budget and destroy the Government which has sponsored it".
  The federal Senate had never blocked supply before 1975, even when it had been controlled by the opposition. In 1947, the upper house of the Parliament of Victoria blocked the budget in order to force a premature election. Premier John Cain called a snap election and was defeated.
  Prior to the 1975 crisis, the Governor-General's power to dismiss a Prime Minister against the incumbent's will under Section 64 of the Constitution had never been exercised. However, in 1904 Labour Prime Minister Chris Watson advised an early election, but Governor-General Lord Northcote refused, triggering Watson's resignation and the appointment of Opposition Leader George Reid as Prime Minister. Twice since Federation, conflicts between state premiers and state governors, who perform analogous functions to the Prime Minister and Governor-General respectively at the state level, had resulted in the departure of one or the other. In 1916, New South Wales Premier William Holman was expelled from the Australian Labor Party for supporting conscription. He managed to hold on to power with the aid of opposition parties and consulted the Governor, Sir Gerald Strickland, proposing to pass legislation to extend the term of the lower house of the state legislature by a year. When Strickland objected, stating that such a course was unfair to Labor, Holman had him replaced. In 1932 the New South Wales Labor Premier, Jack Lang, refused to pay money owed to the Federal government, which froze the state's bank accounts, causing Lang to order that payments to the state government be only in cash. The governor, Sir Philip Game, wrote
caption: Opposition Leader Malcolm Fraser
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