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The role of the Governor-General
Source: Swearing-in of Governor-General, 16 February 1996: Media information
kit.
The Governor-General's duties are many and varied, but fall roughly
into three categories: constitutional and statutory duties, formal ceremonial
duties, and non-ceremonial social duties.
Constitutional and statutory duties
These derive firstly from the Constitution,
and in particular, its first two sections. Section 1 provides that "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 Section 2 provides that "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/her."
The Constitution
also makes other provisions about the office of Governor-General. It provides
that the Executive power of the Commonwealth shall be vested in The Queen
and exercisable by the Governor-General as The Queen's representative.
It provides for the Governor-General to appoint a Federal Executive Council
to advise him/her in the government of the Commonwealth, to establish departments
of State and to appoint Ministers of State to administer them, to summon,
prorogue and dissolve Parliament, to give Royal assent in The Queen's
name to a Bill which has been passed by both Houses of the Parliament,
to exercise the command-in-chief of the naval and military forces of the
Commonwealth, to name but a few matters.
The Constitution
sets out many other powers for the Governor-General to exercise as part
of our machinery of government, but by far the majority of his powers
and duties are imposed upon him/her by statute, that is, by Acts of the Australian
Parliament. Virtually every Act empowers the Governor-General to perform
some executive function - to issue proclamations, to make and terminate
appointments to public office, to issue regulations - but always acting
on the advice of his Ministers in the Executive Council.
It is in the nature of the Governor-General's office that he acts on
the advice of his Ministers but, as Sir Paul Hasluck put it in his 1972
William Queale Memorial lecture,
"... he is under no compulsion to accept it unquestioningly. He
has a responsibility for seeing that the system works as required by
the law and conventions of the Constitution but he does not try to do
the work of Ministers. For him to take part in political argument would
be both overlapping the boundaries of his office and lessening his own
influence. He can himself question a conclusion, seek to know the reasons
for it, draw attention to relevant considerations to ensure they are
taken into account, and satisfy himself that the proposal does express
the single mind of his advisers, but he himself, while influencing the
outcome of discussion in this way, needs to be careful not to be an
advocate of any partisan cause. In doing this he has two dominant interests
- ... the stability of government (no matter from which political party
it is drawn) and regard for the total and non-partisan overall interests
of the people and the nation."
There is also a constitutional provision which places the command-in-chief
of the armed forces with the Governor-General. These days the exercise
of that power is qualified by a number of statutes of the Commonwealth
Parliament and by regulations made under them. So far as the services
themselves are concerned, they see the Governor-General as Commander-in-Chief
and as a focus of loyalty (as they also see The Queen) and as their chief
for ceremonial purposes. In their day-to-day administration and operation
the services are under the command of the Chief of the Defence Force and
his/her subordinate officers. The placing of the command-in-chief with the
Governor-General ensures that, in the final analysis, ultimate control
of the armed forces remains with and will be exercised by the civil power,
the Government of the day and the Governor-General acting with the advice
of his/her Ministers.
It would be very easy to conclude that a Governor-General who is required
to act on the advice of his/her Ministers has no power at all, or that Ministers
whose advice has to be taken have no restraints placed on their use of
executive power, but to do so would be to miss the whole point. For their
part, Ministers are not able to carry into effect on their own all of
the executive powers conferred by the Acts of Parliament which they administer,
but rather they must seek the approval of their fellow Executive Councillors
and the Governor-General. So far as the Governor-General is concerned,
the question is not at all how much power does he/she himself have or exercise,
but rather how much absolute power does his/her presence in the machinery
of government deny to others who must first seek to advise and persuade
him/her.
For the vast majority of his fellow Australians, their contact with
the Governor-General is through his public duties - both ceremonial and
non-ceremonial.
Formal ceremonial duties
The Governor-General's ceremonial duties themselves derive from his/her
relationship to the Parliament and the Government. To mark the opening
of a new Parliament the Governor-General delivers the speech from the
throne, in which the Government sets out its legislative programme. He/she
administers oaths of office to Prime Ministers and Ministers, to Administrators
of Territories of the Commonwealth, to judges of Federal Courts, and to
the Auditor-General. He/she receives the credentials of foreign Ambassadors
and the High Commissioners of Republics within the Commonwealth. He/she holds
investitures at Government House and elsewhere, and invests recipients
of honours and awards with their insignia. He/she attends Anzac Day and Remembrance
Day commemorative services and leads the nation in its tributes to its
war dead. He/she is the reviewing officer at many military parades, at which
he/she presents commissions and prizes to graduating officers, or new colours
and banners to regiments and other units of the armed services. He/she receives
and entertains visiting heads of state in accordance with the accepted
standards of international diplomacy and protocol.
In carrying out all of these acts of state ceremonial, whether at Government
House or in public the Governor-General is fulfilling his/her duties as Australia's
constitutional Head of State, in the absence of The Queen who is the Head
of State.
Non-ceremonial social duties
The most time-consuming and energy-consuming aspects of the Governor-General's
responsibilities are his/her non-ceremonial public duties. These, too, may
be discharged at Government House or anywhere else within the Commonwealth,
for the Governor-General's jurisdiction extends over the whole of Australia
and its Territories. These duties include opening conferences on behalf
of national and international organisations; attending meetings of national
and international societies and institutions; attending major public gatherings
such as exhibitions, agricultural shows and sports meetings; attending
academic occasions, meetings of learned societies and professional institutes,
and presentations of major awards; attending functions as patron or principal
office-bearer of the organisation concerned; official visits to a region,
an area, a locality, or to see a particular industry at work.
Despite the range and variety of the organisations and their functions,
the intention of the Governor-General in accepting many invitations is
generally the same - to acknowledge the standing and the worth of the
host organisation or institution in the community and the value of its
contribution to the well-being of our society, to encourage by his presence
and by his/her interest the continuation of those activities, and to meet
his/her fellow Australians wherever they may live or work.
Finally, by receiving the many hundreds of callers at his/her two official
residences and, together with his/her partner, who also carries out his/her own substantial
programmes of public engagements, by extending their hospitality as hosts
to the many thousands of guests at functions held at Government House
and Admiralty House, the Governor-General acknowledges and encourages
the contribution made by individual Australians to our national life.
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