Ok here we are at Tuesday and of course that means it’s History Tuesday and today I am just going to talk a little about the history of politics in Australia why you wonder well because we now have our 5th Prime Minister in only 5 years what the hell is with that.
The head of state in Australia is split between two people, the Queen and the Governor-General of Australia. The Queen of course really has nothing to do with the running of the country and her representative aka the Governor-General is responsible for appointing ambassadors, ministers and judges and giving Royal Assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and of course bestowing honours on people.
The Governor-General is also the President of the Federal Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Defence Force. Now I have no idea what the Federal Executive Council is just so you know, so don’t ask me. I have learnt that these posts are held under the authority of the Australian Constitution, generally speaking barring exceptional circumstances the Governor-General exercises these powers only on the advice of the Prime-Minister, so really the role of Governor-General is often thought of as a largely ceremonial position.
The Prime Minister is the highest government minister, leader of the cabinet and head of the government they hold office on commission from the Governor-General. The office of the Prime Minister is the most powerful political office in the country. Although the office is not mentioned in the constitution and exists through an unwritten political convention.
Unless there are exceptional circumstances the Prime Minister is always the leader of the political party or coalition with majority support in the House of Representatives.
National elections are held at least once every three years the last one was is 2013, at this time we elected Tony Abbott when I say we I mean the country in general although no one you ask will admit to voting for him.
Last night there was yet another leadership challenge and Malcolm Turnbull is now our Prime Minister the which means we have had five Prime Ministers in the last five years. These are as follows, Kevin Rudd who was challenged and kicked out by Julia Gillard, who was then kicked out and Kevin Rudd was back in but was voted out at the election by Tony Abbott who was challenged and outed by Malcolm Turnbull. This is a joke if you ask me why do we bother having elections if the party can just vote out the leader and over night we can have a new leader of the party and new Prime Minister
The has been one case where a senator was appointed Prime Minister that was when John Gorton was appointed this happened after Harold Holt disappeared, he had to resign his senate position and was elected as a member of the House of Representatives.
Senator George Pearce was acting prime-minister for seven months in 1916 while Billy Hughes was overseas as well.
Malcolm Turnbull is our 29th Prime Minister……………….
Jo-AnneRamplings 
Doesn’t sound very democratic Jo-Anne and 5 Prime Ministers in 5 years – that’s just crazy! ❤
Diana xo
Yes it is crazy and joke why do we vote if they can just change who is in charged whenever they like
Exactly!
Well, with this many Prime Ministers that gives you a lot to blog about — just saying.
Yeah it could
I read a little about this (when I should have been working) this morning because I saw that there was this rapid overturn of Prime Ministers which, due to the lack of consistent leadership, has seemed to lead to a constant state of disappointment in the current leadership. Which, of course, the leadership can’t do much if it is going to be overturned in a year or less. It sounds frustrating. Then again, maybe this amount of turnover is necessary to eventually land on the person who will correct the ship’s direction? I wish you and yours all the best of luck during these shifting tides.
What annoys me is that some people vote for a party because they like who is the leader but then when things are not going the way the party likes they decide to change the leader and to hell with what the rest of the country thinks or wants. Five in Five years is a joke