Prime Minster Ronald Dump: Good morning, sir, I just wanted to tell you that I’ve just appointed myself Minister for Home Affairs so could you swear me in.
Governor General Humpty Doo: Sure, what’s happened to the current Home Affairs minister?
PM Dump: Nothing yet, but as soon as you swear me in I’m having him arrested under the extensive powers I have under the legislation. Oh, and while you’re at it, can you make me Immigration Minister. I want to cancel the citizenship of some Opposition MPs on character grounds.
GG Doo: Character grounds?
PM Dump: Yes, they don’t like what I’m doing and that’s un-Australian, so can we get on with it?
GG Doo: Yes, I’m just here to serve and to do whatever I’m told.
All right, the question is: Could something like the above dialogue actually occur? I mean, would it be legal? You think that it’s far-fetched? Fair enough, but a week ago you wouldn’t have thought it believable if I’d told you that we have a secret shadow government that consisted of Morrison, Morrison, Morrison, Morrison and Morrison… I hope I didn’t forget anyone!
The trouble with Australian politics is that nobody – apart from a handful of nerds – truly understands the laws, rules and conventions.
Now, I think that I should point out that I’m not the expert here but Jordan Peterson is unavailable, and none of the cafe owners wanted to speak on the record, so I’ll just have to do.
Anyway, our PM, Anthony Albanese, told us that the Governor-General was there to do what he was told and he shouldn’t be blamed for doing what the government of the day told him. After Sir John Kerr, it’s not surprising that the Labor Party would think this way.
According to some people, the GG is simply the Queen’s representative and Her Majesty steers clear of politics so that means that the GG should just stick to opening the odd bridge and making the odd speech and signing the odd document and generally acting like a good little rubber stamp because – after all – we are a democracy and just because we still have the Queen as our Head of State that’s no reason for Her Majesty’s representative to pretend that he has some role in the whole thing. I mean, even though the Queen herself is there because of nepotism and the fact that God put one of her ancestors on the throne under the idea that Kings and Queens are there by Divine Right and so we can’t elect them so we should just ignore the fact that the whole basis of their position is absurd and ignore the absurdity and just be thankful there’s something to encourage people to buy “The Women’s Weekly”.
However, this does overlook the fact that the GG does, in fact, have a constitutional role. There are considerable reserve powers invested in the office and they give him or her the power to do all sorts of things should the need arise.
These are:
The Governor-General’s reserve powers are generally agreed to include:
- The power to appoint a prime minister if a federal election has not resulted in a clear outcome
- The power to dismiss a prime minister if they have lost the support of the majority of the House of Representatives
- The power to refuse a request for a double dissolution
- The power to dismiss a prime minister or minister if they break the law
- The power to refuse a request from a prime minister to call an election.
Now I’m not suggesting that what Scotty did was illegal, and I’m not suggesting that the GG should have refused to do it. I’m certainly not suggesting that the relationship between the fellow-Christian is anything other than professional and that the $18 million that went to Hurley’s charity was just a drop in the bucket compared to the largesse of Morrison to a range of others.
But I AM suggesting that Governors-General are more than just rubber stamps. Just like the dialogue at the start. He or she should know when the government is exceeding its authority under the Constitution and under what circumstances it would be appropriate for him or her to seek further advice on a course of action.
Otherwise, the $24 million a year is pretty expensive for someone to sign a few documents and tick off legislation when it’s passed both Houses. After all, that much could buy the government a full time drought envoy.
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