User:Skyring/AHOS

Views on the Australian Head of State
It may seem odd to state that there is a diversity of opinion as to the identity of the Australian head of state, and I can understand why some people have difficulty with this, but the demonstrable fact is that this diversity of opinion exists, and if the Prime Minister himself believes that the Governor-General rather than the Queen is the head of state, then obviously this is something worthy of investigation.

As a Wikipedia editor, my own opinions are irrelevant, except to say that it is my firm opinion that Wikipedia articles should reflect fact rather than opinion.

The three views
There are three opinions as to who is the head of state:


 * 1) The Queen as sole head of state
 * 2) The Queen and Governor-General as joint heads of state with seperate roles
 * 3) The Governor-General as sole head of state

Government Sources
A Parliamentary Library Research Brief summarises the two "sole head of state" views in the context of "Who Must Open the Sydney Olympics?"
 * If the Queen is not the Australian Head of State and the Governor-General is, he must open the Sydney Olympic Games as prescribed by the Olympic Charter of the IOC.
 * (The Governor-General opened the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The paper noted that the Queen could delegate her powers to the Governor-General, instructing him to open the games as her representative, but no such delegation was made, nor were any instructions issued.)

The Commonwealth Government Directory of March 1997 states that the Governor-General is the head of state on page ix under "Arrangement of entries"
 * Entries are arranged in accordance with the formal structure of the Commonwealth Government. First is the Governor-General (the Head of State), with the Federal Executive Council (of which the Governor-General is the President)...
 * This directory is the official printed directory of Commonwealth government officers and representatives, published quarterly by the Australian Government Publishing Service in Canberra. It must be noted that the description of the Governor-General as head of state is not uniform from edition to edition, commencing during the years of the Keating Government and swapping from Governor-General to Queen and back again several times in the 11 years since.

Politicians
John Howard, Australian Prime Minister 1996-date.
 * The Queen is Queen of Australia. However, under our present constitution, the Governor-General is effectively Australia’s head of state.[John Howard's Statement on the Republic Referendum]


 * JOURNALIST: Hasn’t Australia reached the point though where an Australian should be its Head of State?


 * PRIME MINISTER: Well the effective Head of State of Australia is the Governor-General who’s been an Australian since, what, 1965.Interview 14 March 2006

Simon Crean, Federal Opposition Leader 2001-2003, described the Governor-General as the head of state in an interview given during the Peter Hollingworth affair.
 * Of course I do because I've known him over many years and he has done important work for the community. I also have sympathy for the circumstances of his wife and I expressed those to the Governor-General at ANZAC Day. But, you know, there's a whole lot emotions going here. But the truth of it is we're dealing with the Head of State and the Head of State cannot be a person who has covered up for child sex abusers.

Others
Professor Owen E Hughes in Australian Politics, 3rd edition, Macmillan Education, Melbourne 1998, pp170-1
 * The Governor-General is the head of state and performs important ceremonial duties, but it is a mistake to see the role purely in those terms. The position is one of great formal power, both legal and political. The Constitution gives the Governor-General power to commission the government, appoint the ministers and command the military. Colin Howard argues this system is not a monarchy but a Governor-Generalship, with prerogative powers now deriving from the Constitution, rather than from being the Queen's representative.
 * The reference to Howard is in his The Constitution, Power and Politics, Melbourne, Fontana, 1980, p71.

US Department of State Background Note: Australia
 * Head of state is the governor general, who is appointed by the Queen of Australia (the British Monarch).

=Australian Head of State= The Australian head of state is not currently defined in Australian or international law, and the debate over who occupies that position has continued for several decades, usually in the context of constitutional debate.

Background
The Australian constitution dates from 1901, when the Dominions of the British Empire were not sovereign states, and does not use the term head of state. In practice, the role of head of state in Australia is divided between two people, the Queen of Australia and the Governor-General of Australia, who represents the Queen and is appointed by her on the advice of the Prime Minister of Australia.

The sovereign, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is also the sovereign of fifteen other Commonwealth realms, including the United Kingdom. Like the other former Dominions, Australia gained legislative independence from the parliament of the United Kingdom by virtue of the Statute of Westminster 1931, which was adopted in Australia in 1942, with retrospective effect from 3 September 1939. By the Royal Style and Titles Act 1953, the Australian parliament gave the Queen the title Queen of Australia and, in 1973, removed from the Queen's Australian style and titles any reference to her status as Queen of the United Kingdom and Defender of the Faith.

Section 61 of the constitution provides that "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." Section 2 provides that a governor-general shall represent the Queen in Australia. In practice, the governor-general carries out all the functions usually performed by a head of state, without reference to the Queen.

The question of whether the Queen is Australia's head of state became a political one during the 1999 Australian republic referendum, when opponents of the move to make Australia a republic claimed that Australia already had an Australian as head of state in the person of the governor-general, who, since 1965, has invariably been an Australian citizen. The former governor-general, Major General Michael Jeffery, said in 2004: "Her Majesty is Australia's head of state but I am her representative and to all intents and purposes I carry out the full role." However, in 2005, he declined to name the Queen as head of state, instead saying in response to a direct question, "the Queen is the Monarch and I represent her, and I carry out all the functions of head of state." The governor-general normally represents Australia internationally, making and receiving state visits.

Under the conventions of the Westminster system, the governor-general's powers are almost always exercised on the advice of the prime minister or other ministers of the Crown. The governor-general may use the reserve powers of the Crown, though these are rarely exercised. During the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975 Governor-General Sir John Kerr used them independently of the Queen and the prime minister.

Comparison with other Commonwealth realms
In most of the fifteen Commonwealth realms, the monarch is explicitly defined as the head of state. For example, Section 2 of New Zealand's Constitution Act states: The Sovereign in right of New Zealand is the head of State of New Zealand, and shall be known by the royal style and titles proclaimed from time to time.

The Australian Constitution contains no similar definition. Nor does any Australian legislation or regulation define the position of head of state.

The view that the Queen is the Australian head of state
The image of Queen Elizabeth II, like her royal predecessors, is found on the obverse of Australian coins.

The view that the governor-general is the Australian head of state
In 1907 the High Court described the Governor of South Australia, and thus all governors, as the “Constitutional Head of State,” or “Head of State”. And the Court declared the Governor-General to be the “Constitutional Head of the Commonwealth.”

In 2009 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd described the Governor-General as the Australian head of state, announcing an overseas visit by Quentin Bryce by saying, "A visit to Africa of this scale by Australia's Head of State will express the seriousness of Australia's commitment".

The divided community
Opinions within the Australian community are diverse. It is commonplace for Australian newspapers, government ministers, constitutional scholars and the general public to refer to the monarch or the Governor-General as the head of state. In 1995 the Parliamentary Library summed up the ongoing debate in a research note, setting out some arguments for each position.

The government position varies. In 1996, for example, the Commonwealth Government Directory listed the Governor-General in these terms: "Function: Under the Constitution the Governor-General is the Head of State in whom the Executive Power of the Commonwealth is vested.”

The republican debate
Australia has periodically experienced movements seeking to end the monarchy. In a 1999 referendum, the Australian people voted on a proposal to change the Constitution. The proposal would have removed references to the Queen from the Constitution and replaced the Governor-General with a President nominated by the Prime Minister, but subject to the approval of a two-thirds majority of both Houses of the Parliament. The proposal was defeated. The Australian Republican Movement continues to campaign for an end to the monarchy in Australia, opposed by Australians for Constitutional Monarchy.

The republican movement promotes the view that the Queen alone is the Australian Head of State, and that Australia needs to move to a republican form of government in order to have a truly Australian head of state. Conversely, the monarchist opinion is that Australia already has this in the person of the Governor-General.