As she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, you may ask what role does Queen Elizabeth play in British politics. Here’s a brief history lesson. For much of Britain’s history, the monarch — not parliament — ruled the roost. For more than six centuries, successive kings and the odd queen were at the pinnacle of.

The Monarchy of Australia is a form of government in which a hereditary monarch is the sovereign of Australia according to the rules of the Australian Constitution.

This means that the job of King or Queen of Australia passes down through the Royal Family. When the King or Queen dies, the job passes to their son, daughter or next in line to the throne. As monarch of Australia, they then have ceremonial and constitutional duties as part of the government of Australia. The Governor General of Australia does the work of the monarch for the national Government. State Governors do the work of the monarch for State Governments of Australia.

History[changechange source]

The British First Fleet of convict ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 and New South Wales became a Crown Colony, with King George III of England as its King. The British set up other colonies all around Australia with powerful colonial governors chosen by Britain. From the 1820s, these colonies began to get more and more self-government and from the 1850s they began to become parliamentary democracies, which kept the Kings and Queens of the United Kingdom as their Heads of State, with royal duties done by Colonial Governors who had less and less real power.

In 1901, after a vote, the British colonies of Australia decided to become one country, with a constitutional monarchy with Queen Victoria as the monarch. The Duke of Cornwall and York (later King George V) opened the first Parliament of Australia in 1901 and the Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) opened the first Parliament in Canberra in 1927.

The Balfour Declaration of 1926, changed the situation in the British Empire, so that United Kingdom and the Dominions (like Australia, Canada and New Zealand) were to be seen as equal and independent, but 'united by a common allegiance to the Crown'. This situation of independent monarchies was confirmed by the Statute of Westminster. The Curtin Labor Government chose Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester (the brother of King George VI), as Governor-General during the Second World War.^[1]

Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit Australia in 1954, greeted by huge crowds across the nation. Her son Prince Charles went to school in Australia in 1967.^[2] Her grandson Prince Harry lived in Australia for some of his gap-year in 2003.^[3]

The Royal family was very popular for most of the 20th Century - but by the 1990s, some politicians and lots of people wanted Australia to become a republic. In 1999, the country had a referendum to become a republic, but the people chose to keep the Australian monarchy instead of changing to a republic.

The Monarch[changechange source]

At the moment, the monarch of Australia is Queen Elizabeth II. She has the title of Queen of Australia and has reigned since 6 February 1952. She is represented in Australia by the Governor-General.^[4][5] The Governor-General does the work of the Queen in Australia and follows the rules of the Australian Constitution. He or she is chosen by the Prime Minister and appointed by the monarch.

In each of the States of Australia, the monarch is represented by a Governor. The Governors are appointed by the Queen after the state premiers tell her their choice.

The Australian monarch is also monarch of fifteen other Commonwealth countries known as Commonwealth realms: including Britain, New Zealand, Canada and Papua New Guinea.

The Governor General[changechange source]

The Governor General is chosen by the Prime Minister and is appointed by the monarch to act as Head of State. The Governor General cannot behave like a politician or member of a political party, but must do the work of the monarch in Australia. The Governor General does things like opening parliament, and giving out awards on Australia Day. After elections, or when a government loses or wins a majority in the Australian House of Representatives, the Governor General is the person who legally decides that the prime minister has the numbers to lead a government.

Some Governor-Generals belonged to the Royal Family and for a long time they all came from Britain, but for many years all Governor Generals have been Australians.

List of Australian Monarchs[changechange source]

References[changechange source]

1. ↑Cunneen, Chris. Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University – via Australian Dictionary of Biography.
2. ↑Magnay, Jacquelin (27 January 2011). 'Prince Charles says 'Pommy' insults were character building'. The Daily Telegraph. London.
3. ↑'Prince Harry arrives for gap year in Australia'. BBC News. 23 September 2003.
4. ↑'Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia: Letters Patent Relating to the Office of Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia'.
5. ↑'Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia: Amendment of Letters Patent'.

As she celebrates her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, you may ask what role does Queen Elizabeth play in British politics. Here’s a brief history lesson.

For much of Britain’s history, the monarch — not parliament — ruled the roost. For more than six centuries, successive kings and the odd queen were at the pinnacle of the political system and at the centre of what was recognised as the constitution.

The monarch controlled the army, made political appointments, called and dissolved the House of Commons whenever he or she liked and had all the high offices of state in his or her gift. From the 1540s onwards, the monarch even controlled the Church, appointing bishops and acquiring huge tracts of land which had formerly belonged to the Roman Catholic Church. In short, the monarch was No. 1.

However, during the 17th century, the Civil War resulted in parliament seizing some significant powers from the monarch. As a result, many of the powers to appoint government officials started to fall into the hands of politicians instead of the sovereign.

But unlike many other Western countries, Britain didn’t ditch its monarchy. Instead, the institution transformed into a constitutional monarchy. So, instead of exercising absolute political power, modern-day monarchs exercise their authority within the confines of the UK’s constitution – within certain limits set by accepted conventions of behaviour.

So what does Queen Elizabeth II do these days when it comes to governing Britain? Cns menu for mac.

In practice the monarch performs several roles, but his or her power is largely ceremonial, such as:

• Opening and dissolving parliament

• Appointing the prime minister

  Rta software for mac. TechRTA provides an informative, technically oriented display. TechRTA is a free Visual Plug-In for Apple's iTunes that implements a stereo realtime analyzer and phase scope. TechRTA provides. RTA is a professional-grade acoustical analysis tool. All filters meet or exceed ANSI and IEC Class 1 specifications. Includes Octave and 1/3 Octave modes, with selectable decay times, as well as Peak Hold and true linear Average mode.

• Consenting to all bills passed by parliament (without this consent they can’t become law)

• Appointing bishops and members of the House of Lords

These powers may seem pretty similar to those being exercised by monarchs way back in the 17th century before parliament took over. However, a crucial caveat applies to the power of the monarch: he or she must act with the advice of ministers. What this means, in effect, is that the monarch does as they’re told by the leaders of the government.

For example, the monarch dissolves parliament only when he or she’s been told to do it by the prime minister, who wants to call an election.

The power to appoint a prime minister is also illusory because, by constitutional convention, the monarch has to ask the leader of the party which holds a majority in parliament. The personal feelings or wishes of the monarch don’t come into it. The monarch’s job is to rubber-stamp what goes on in parliament.

Take the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II and ex-Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher, for instance. It was widely rumoured that the Queen didn’t like Margaret Thatcher nor the policies that her radical, reforming government pursued. However, Her Majesty had to appoint Thatcher as prime minister three times because Thatcher kept winning elections. In reality, the monarch has no choice in who he or she appoints to the role of prime minister.

So what would happen if the monarch decided to disobey his or her ministers – the government – and appoint someone he or she liked to be prime minister or refused to give consent to bills passed by parliament? Well, the majority of MPs in parliament would possibly vote to either ask the monarch to abdicate or even abolish the institution of monarchy altogether.