all right

Occasionally adding corroborative details to add verisimilitude to otherwise bald and unconvincing,
but veridicous accounts
with careful attention, indefatigable assiduity, and nice discrimination.

11 November, 2011

Part of Parliament Refuses to Be Part of Parliament

TWAKI has a post, “Governor General not interested in Australian democracy”, which quotes a letter from the Governor-General’s office:
Her Excellency has asked me to reply to you on her behalf.
I have taken note of your views.  However, in a parliamentary democracy, these are matters for the Parliament to resolve and it would be inappropriate for the Governor-General to intervene.
You may wish to bring your views to the attention of your elected representatives.
According the Australian Constitution, the Governor-General (representing the Queen) is an integral constituent of the Parliament:
1. The legislative power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in a Federal Parliament, which shall consist of the Queen, a Senate, and a House of Representatives, and which is herein-after called “The Parliament,” or “The Parliament of the Commonwealth.”
2. A Governor-General appointed by the Queen shall be Her Majesty’s representative in the Commonwealth, and shall have and may exercise in the Commonwealth during the Queen’s pleasure, but subject to this Constitution, such powers and functions of the Queen as Her Majesty may be pleased to assign to him. 
58. When a proposed law passed by both Houses of the Parliament is presented to the Governor-General for the Queen's assent, he shall declare, according to his discretion, but subject to this Constitution, that he assents in the Queen’s name, or that he withholds assent, or that he reserves the law for the Queen’s pleasure.
The Governor-General may return to the house in which it originated any proposed law so presented to him, and may transmit therewith any amendments which he may recommend, and the Houses may deal with the recommendation.
61. The executive power of the Commonwealth is vested in the Queen and is exercisable by the Governor-General as the Queen’s representative, and extends to the execution and maintenance of this Constitution, and of the laws of the Commonwealth.
The Governor-General, effectively, is bizarrely stating, “it would be inappropriate for the Governor-General to be involved in matters which the Governor-General, the Senate and the House of Representatives must resolve.
The Governor-General has a moral duty, just as Senators and Members of the House of Representatives each have a duty, to ensure that all proposed laws are just, enforceable, and in the national interest.  Unfortunately, the present, pretentious, partisan, pusillanimous Governor-General wants to enjoy all the perquisites of her position (and then some), apparently, without actually bothering with the hard task of checking whether legislation passed by the Senate and House of Representatives ought to receive royal assent.


See also “May the Governor-General Dissolve the House of Representatives?

UPDATE:  Some have unjustly censured our gracious sovereign for not attempting to stop our incompetent Government ruining the country further.  HM the Queen has quite rightly refused to intervene because all her powers, constitutionally, are vested in the Governor-General who does have the power (as I mention above)—as well as the moral duty—to intervene.  All the Queen may do under our Constitution, since the passage of the Australia Act in 1986, is appoint the Governor-General, on the advice of the Prime Minister.

1 comment:

bingbing said...

Something should but nothing will come of it. Bryce is part of that fem-cabal that regular Aussie women can't stand.