User:JackofOz/Ministers not in Parliament

This is a List of people who held Australian Federal Ministries while not Members of the Australian Parliament.

Section 64 of the Australian Constitution empowers the Governor-General to appoint ministers to administer departments. Such appointments are by convention always made on the advice of the Prime Minister.

Section 64 requires a minister to be a member of the House of Representatives or the Senate, or to become a member within three months of the appointment; if that does not occur, their appointment lapses. However, this provision of Section 64 specifically applied only "after the first general election". The reason for this was that the Federation of Australia occurred on 1 January 1901, but elections for the first parliament were not scheduled until 29 and 30 March. In the interim, the country needed a government. Section 64 of the Constitution gave this first government legitimacy.

Thus, the period from 1 January to 30 March 1901 saw the first examples of Australian ministers who were not members of the parliament. This was a unique circumstance in that there was at that time no parliament to be a member of.

However, Section 64 has been employed in a number of later cases. When a minister resigns or retires from parliament, or is defeated at a general election, their ministerial appointment does not necessarily cease at the same time as their membership of the parliament ceases. Subject to Section 64 and the advice of the Prime Minister, ministerial appointments continue at the Governor-General's pleasure.

First Barton ministry
The members of the inaugural Barton ministry sworn in on 1 January 1901 were:
 * Edmund Barton, Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs
 * Alfred Deakin, Attorney-General
 * Sir William Lyne, Minister for Home Affairs (also Premier of New South Wales until 27 March 1901)
 * Sir George Turner, Treasurer
 * Charles Kingston, Minister for Trade and Customs
 * Sir James Dickson, Minister for Defence
 * Sir John Forrest, Postmaster-General (also Premier of Western Australia until 15 February 1901)
 * Richard O'Connor, Vice-President of the Executive Council
 * Elliott Lewis, Minister (without portfolio) (also Premier of Tasmania)

On 10 January, Sir James Dickson died suddenly. He was the only minister who never even had an opportunity to become a member of the parliament. His place as Minister for Defence was taken by Sir John Forrest from 17 January. Forrest's old portolio of Postmaster-General was taken by a new minister, James Drake, on 5 February.

With one exception, all ministers successfully contested the elections of 29 and 30 March. Richard O'Connor and James Drake became senators, and the remainder became members of the House of Representatives. Elliott Lewis, who remained Premier of Tasmania throughout his term as federal minister, chose to remain with Tasmanian politics alone, but remained Minister (without portfolio) until 23 April.

List of other ministers not in the parliament
Following is a list of later cases where a Minister has for some period not been a member of the Parliament.