|
The dispute over who is Australia's head of state centres on the question of whether the monarch or the governor-general is the country's head of state; the term ''head of state'' does not appear in the Australian constitution. The disagreement has continued for decades, usually, though not always, within the debate over an Australian republic, and involved viceroys, politicians, legal scholars, and the media. ==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'', which regularly denotes the person who holds the highest rank in government.〔 The monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II, is also the sovereign of fifteen other countries, including the United Kingdom (UK), that are informally known, with Australia, as the Commonwealth realms. In his 1993 book ''The Reluctant Republic'', Malcolm Turnbull explained that, at Federation, the "Governor-General acted partly as head of state and partly as the local representative of the British Government", the latter being the Queen in her Privy Council of the United Kingdom. As with the other former Dominions, Australia gained legislative independence from the UK by virtue of the Statute of Westminster 1931, which was adopted in Australia in 1942 with retroactive 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. Australia's full independence from the UK was achieved with the Australia Act 1986. Section 61 of the constitution states 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. The governor-general is appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister of Australia.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=The Queen's role in Australia )〕 In practice, the governor-general carries out all the functions usually performed by a head of state, without reference to the Queen; though the governor-general is the Queen's representative, he or she is not the monarch's delegate or agent. 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 as prescribed by the constitution,〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Pillar 2- Parliamentary Democracy )〕 though these are rarely exercised. One notable example of their use was by Governor-General Sir John Kerr during the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975. The question of whether the Queen or the governor-general is Australia's head of state became a political one in the years prior to the Australian republic referendum in 1999 and remains one within the continuing debate around an Australian republic.〔 Republicans include in their campaign the idea that the Queen is head of state and not Australian and, as such, should be replaced with an Australian citizen; this was summed up in their slogan "a mate for head of state". Opponents of the move to make Australia a republic claim in response that Australia already has an Australian as head of state in the governor-general, who, since 1965, has invariably been an Australian citizen. The governor-general in 2004, Major General Michael Jeffery, said at the time: "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, the following year, 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, but the Queen also carries out some official duties representing Australia outside Australia, such as in the United Kingdom. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Australian head of state dispute」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|