the governor general has the power of appointing in australia.
the governor general has the power of appointing in australia.
what powers does the governor general have in australia?
appointing
the formalities for appointing governors-general are not the same in all the realms. for example: when appointed, a governor-general of australia issues a proclamation in his own name, countersigned by the head of government and under the great seal of australia, formally announcing that he has been appointed by the monarch's commission, previously issued also under the great seal of australia. the practice in canada is to include in the governor general's proclamation of appointment, issued under the great seal of canada, the monarch's commission naming the governor general as commander-in-chief of the canadian forces also dissimilar among the realms are the powers of governors-general. the belizean constitution provides the governor-general with the power to assent or to withhold assent to laws, while papua new guinea has no requirement for royal assent at all, with laws entering into force when certified as having been passed in parliament by the speaker.
governor-general
the "letters patent" of 1947 has been widely misconstrued, both intentionally and unintentionally, as effecting a "transfer" of all the powers of the crown to the governor general, and thus putting the governor general in a position equal to that of the queen. even former governors general have failed to grasp the essence of the letters patent. for example, under the tenure of michaëlle jean, nearly all references to the queen were removed from the governor general's website, citing the 1947 letters patent as "transferring all the duties of head of state of canada to the governor general". this opinion seems to have surfaced under former governor general adrienne clarkson, who in her memoirs expressed that even "many politicians don't seem to know that the final authority of the state was transferred from the monarch to the governor general in the letters patent of 1947", a statement determined to be "nonsense on clarkson’s part" and where her referring to herself as a "head of state" simply reinforced her "misunderstanding of the letters patent". this misunderstanding came to a head in 2009 when michaëlle jean also stated that she was, in fact, canada's head of state, which led to a rare public rebuke from the prime minister of canada, stephen harper, who stated "categorically that queen elizabeth ii is canada's head of state" and that the governor general serves as the queen's representative in canada. it is apparent from political correspondence of the time that it was never the belief of the government that such powers had ever been transferred. in addition, the tabling of bill c-60 in 1978, which moved to legally transfer the powers exercised by the queen to the governor general, would have been completely redundant if such a transfer had already occurred 31 years previous.
letters patent, 1947