Talk:Constitution of Australia/Archive 1

message: is the Governor General of Australia the Head of State? Is that one reasonable interpretation of the Constitution Act. Sir David Smith who was Official Secretary to five Governors-General of Australia from 1973 to 1990.   His opinion is that the Governor-General is the Head of State, this would put Australia in a different position than other commonwealth countries. The full text of his article can be found here: http://www.norepublic.com.au/essays/Essay_GG_HoS.htm
Here is the beginning of his article:
:The Queen plays an important role under our system of government as Queen of Australia, as does the Governor-General as the Queen?s representative and as the embodiment of the Crown in Australia. These separate and distinct roles are carried out without detriment to our sovereignty as a nation, and without detriment to our independence. Republicans argue that the Queen is our Head of State and that the republic would give us an Australian as Head of State. Constitutional monarchists argue that the Queen is the Sovereign and that the Governor-General is the Head of State.
:The Australian Constitution does not contain the words ?Head of State?, nor was the term discussed during the constitutional debates which resulted in the drafting of the Constitution and its subsequent approval by the Australian people. In the absence of a specific provision in the Constitution, we need to see who actually performs the duties of Head of State in order to determine who is the Head of State.
:As discussed in this paper, these duties are performed by the Governor-General, and the Sovereign?s only constitutional duty is to approve the Prime Minister?s recommendation of the person to be appointed Governor-General, or, if the need should ever arise, to approve the Prime Minister?s recommendation to terminate the appointment of a Governor-General. Although the Governor-General is the Queen?s representative for the purposes of exercising the prerogatives of the Crown in Australia, when he exercises his constitutional duties as head of the executive Government of Australia he does so in his own right and not as a delegate of the Queen.
----
Sir David is an ultra-conservatiive, a supporter of the Samuel Griffith Society and a prominant monarchist so his views should be taken with a huge heaping bowl of salt when it comes to the Head of State issue.
PMelvilleAustin 05:39, Aug 25, 2003 (UTC)
:But do you think from an NPOV perspective that he can be considered a crackpot or is it a relevant position on the topic? There has been a discussion about this on the Talk:Head of State page. Personally, as a Canadian and someone who has studied British and Commonwealth constitutional history, I never heard of this Governor-General is the head of state argument, in Canada they are obsessed with the sovereignity of provinces (a la Quebec separatism) so I find this approach to quelching republicianism interesting. Alex756 16:59, 25 Aug 2003 (UTC)
replies: text: incorrect. the Queen is the only person with the power to appoint or recall the Governor General. She in theory is the most powerful person in the country (albeit she is not there most of the time). whether she has or will ever use her vast reserve powers is an entirely different argument. a analogous description could be that the queen is head of state and GG is "deputy" head of state. Xtra 05:41, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: The Queen has for many years demonstrated that she has no desire to ever interfere in Australian politics - see this letter for example. --bainer 02:04, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: i don't disagree. but if she wanted to she would be legally entitled. Xtra 03:07, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Of course she's technically entitled to, but after so many years of non-interference (and statements to that effect) you could pretty much consider it a constitutional convention that the monarch stays out of colonial politics. --bainer 22:37, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

text: no. Xtra 12:38, 6 Feb 2005 (UTC)

text: no. when the queen is in australia she has the authority that would otherwise be exercised by the governor greneral. at least thats what my constitutional law lecturer told me. Xtra 07:53, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Miscellaneous