Role of The Governors
The role of state Governor in modern times is largely symbolic. Nevertheless, the state Governors, like the Governor-General, retain the full panoply of the reserve powers of the Crown. This has been shown on two recent occasions.
In 1987 the Governor of Queensland, Sir Walter Campbell, refused to accept the advice of the National Party Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, to dismiss his entire ministry, who were about to depose him. Campbell believed that Bjelke-Petersen had lost the confidence of his own party and was behaving irrationally. Bjelke-Petersen subsequently resigned.
In 1989 the Governor of Tasmania, Sir Phillip Bennett, refused to grant a fresh dissolution to the Liberal Premier, Robin Gray, who had just lost his majority at a state election. Although no one party had a majority in the new House of Assembly, Bennett took the view that Gray no longer had the confidence of the Parliament and could not advise him to call a second election. Gray then resigned and Bennett commissioned a minority Labor government.
In the event of a Governor-General's death, incapacity, removal, resignation or absence overseas, each of the State Governors has a dormant commission to become the Administrator of the Commonwealth, that is, to take on the Governor-General's duties until he returns from overseas or a new appointment is made. The convention has been that the longest-serving State Governor is appointed Administrator. When Peter Hollingworth resigned in May 2003, Sir Guy Green, Governor of Tasmania, took on that role, serving until Major-General Michael Jeffery took office in August 2003.
Read more about this topic: Governors Of The Australian States
Famous quotes containing the words role of the, role of, role and/or governors:
“The role of the intelligence—that part of us which affirms and denies and formulates opinions—is merely to submit.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“Where we come from in America no longer signifies—it’s where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we are.
The irony of the role of women in my business, and in so many other places, too, was that while we began by demanding that we be allowed to mimic the ways of men, we wound up knowing we would have to change those ways. Not only because those ways were not like ours, but because they simply did not work.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“His role was as the gentle teacher, the logical, compassionate, caring and articulate teacher, who inspired you so that you wanted to please him more than life itself.”
—Carol Lawrence, U.S. singer, star of West Side Story. Conversations About Bernstein, p. 172, ed. William Westbrook Burton, Oxford University Press (1995)
“I do love this people [the French] with all my heart, and think that with a better religion and a better form of government and their present governors their condition and country would be most enviable.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)