4 ms·
Supply == The Australian Government's budget. Unlike the United States, By law, and by basic common sense, there MUST be a bill passed that contains the budge
by urthor 4y ago
Supply == The Australian Government's budget.
Unlike the United States,
By law, and by basic common sense, there MUST be a bill passed that contains the budget for the coming year. Otherwise no money is made available to public servants.
Any government must be able to secure support for this bill once a year.
Otherwise the entire civil service will not be paid.
What the Queen established was the precedent that, instead of having a government shutdown over supply like the United States, you instead just have an election right away.
Frankly, compared to the US approach, it's much more practical.
- Taniwha 4y agoIt's different than that - calling an election has always been the Queen/Governor General's only real power in this situation, that bit is not new. What's a big deal now is that Kerr and the Queen were going to do it because it COULD happen, not because it WAS happening. Minority governments, with confidence and supply agreements from minor parties (or not) are not uncommon in the world, but they're obviously not as stable ... but in an English (and commonwealth) parliamentary democracy it takes a loss of confidence (a majority vote of no-confidence in the parliament), or loss of supply (the inability to fund government) for the head of state to force an election
- retrac 4y agoWell, having a shutdown is just... inane. Should the government ever get wedged into a spot where there's no budget and no Parliament, the Crown has a duty to enact the most conservative (i.e. identical to the previous) budget as feasible and hold an election ASAP. The issue has never actually arisen in those terms here in Canada, but it's generally understood that is the constitutional procedure. If the government is not functional, then prevent society from collapsing in the meantime, and get a new government elected ASAP. Really, that's the essence of the reserve powers of the Crown.
- nelgaard 4y agoMaybe not in those terms. But the Queen and GC have dissolved (or prorogated) the Canadian Parliament as recent as 2008. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932009_Canadian_parliamentary_dispute https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%932009_Canadian_par...