#facestab last cranked 2009-04-18 05:46

Royal Commission (a feature of Westminster systems)
posted by surrael at 2009-04-18 05:46

surrael: includes powers of "compelling all government officials to aid in the execution of the Commission."
surrael: it is not possible to be powerful without support ... and corruption implies the support is not solid

What happens to bad little governments who don't eat their greens
posted by surrael at 2009-04-18 04:38

surrael: see also double dissolution
surrael: "On 8 October 2003, the then Prime Minister John Howard initiated public discussion of whether the mechanism for the resolution of deadlocks between the houses should be reformed. High levels of support for the existing mechanism, and a very low level of public interest in that discussion, resulted in the abandonment of these proposals." source
surrael: resulted in the famous quote: "Well may we say God Save the Queen, because nothing will save the Governor General"
surrael: here's why it happened
surrael: part2
surrael: of course, it's extremely serious
surrael: how it happened: "Opposition Leader, Malcolm Fraser, announced that the Senate would defer passage of the Supply Bills until Whitlam called an election. Whitlam refused. There followed three weeks of constitutional crisis as the parties confronted each other in Parliament and the country." then the GG sacked government, appointed the opposition, and disolved parliament
surrael: here is how the timing was critical, and fudged to force the dissolution where it was not required: "In the meantime, the Senate passed the Supply Bills, with the Labor senators unaware that their government had been dismissed."
surrael: moral: there is nothing powerful beauracrats hate more than a popular government

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