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Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
's political system, the Federal Executive Council is a body established by Section 62 of the Australian Constitution to advise the
Governor-General Governor-general (plural ''governors-general''), or governor general (plural ''governors general''), is the title of an office-holder. In the context of governors-general and former British colonies, governors-general are appointed as viceroy t ...
, Text may be copied from this source, which is available under
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
licence.
and comprises, at least notionally, all current and former Commonwealth
ministers Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of governme ...
and assistant ministers. As the Governor-General is bound by convention to follow the advice of the Executive Council on almost all occasions, the Executive Council has ''
de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally ...
'' executive power. In practice, this power is used to legally enact the decisions already made by
Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...
, which according to the practices of the Westminster system has no ''de jure'' authority in its own right (it exists solely by convention and is not established by the constitution or any statute). There are some laws that specifically require decisions or actions to be made by the ‘Governor-General in Council’, which means that they must be effected by the Governor-General in the presence and with the authority of the Executive Council, as opposed to by a minister acting alone. The matters that are typically required to be dealt with by the Governor-General in Council include: * the making of
regulations Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. For ...
* appointing, renewing and removing statutory officers * appointing judges * determining the appropriate use of
Crown land Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...
* issuing proclamations. The Australian Federal Executive Council is the equivalent of executive councils in other
Commonwealth realm A Commonwealth realm is a sovereign state in the Commonwealth of Nations whose monarch and head of state is shared among the other realms. Each realm functions as an independent state, equal with the other realms and nations of the Commonwealt ...
s, and is similar to the
privy council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...
s of
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
(although unlike the UK privy council, the
Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
is not typically a member).


Composition

The Australian Federal Executive Council formally consists of all current and former Commonwealth Ministers and Assistant Ministers (previously called parliamentary secretaries). Members of the Executive Council are referred to as Councillors and are entitled to the style '
The Honourable ''The Honourable'' (British English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific style that is used as a prefix before the names or titles of certain ...
' for life. Section 64 of the Constitution stipulates that when a Minister is appointed, that Minister shall also become a member of the Executive Council. There is no provision for such membership to come to an end, but only those Ministers in the current
ministry Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian ...
who are invited to take part in meetings are in practice actually involved in Council activities. The Governor-General presides over meetings of the Executive Council but is not a member. A member of the Cabinet is appointed to hold the position of
Vice-President of the Executive Council The Vice-President of the Executive Council is the minister in the Government of Australia who acts as the presiding officer of meetings of the Federal Executive Council when the Governor-General is absent. The Vice-President of the Executiv ...
to act as presiding officer of the Executive Council in the absence of the Governor-General, at no additional salary or allowance. However, the Vice-President cannot sign Executive Council documents on behalf of the Governor-General. The Governor-General has the power to dismiss any member of the Executive Council, but that power is rarely exercised in practice. It might be exercised if, hypothetically, a minister or former minister were convicted of a serious criminal offence. One notable case was that of the Queensland Senator
Glen Sheil Glenister Fermoy Sheil (21 October 192929 September 2008) was an Australian politician, representing the National Party in the Senate for the state of Queensland from 1974 to 1981, and again from 1984–90. He was an amateur tennis player wh ...
.
Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. Fraser was raised on hi ...
's government was re-elected at the 1977 election on 10 December, and on 19 December he publicly announced the ministry he would be recommending to the Governor-General, which included Senator Sheil as the new Minister for Veterans' Affairs. Sheil was sworn in as an Executive Councillor but, prior to the scheduled swearing-in of the Ministry, he made public statements about
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
that were at odds with the government's attitude to the issue. Fraser then advised Governor-General
Sir Zelman Cowen Sir Zelman Cowen, (7 October 1919 – 8 December 2011) was an Australian legal scholar and university administrator who served as the 19th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1977 to 1982. Cowen was born in Melbourne, and attended ...
not to include Sheil in the ministry—advice that Cowen was required by convention to follow. Sheil's appointment as an Executive Councillor without portfolio was terminated on 22 December.


Meetings

Meetings of the Executive Council do not require the Governor-General's attendance, but the Governor-General must be notified of the meeting in order for it to be valid. A
quorum A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...
for meetings is the Governor-General and two serving ministers or assistant ministers. If the Governor-General is not in attendance, quorum is the Vice-President and two serving ministers or assistant ministers. In the absence of the Vice-President, quorum is three ministers, one of whom, a senior minister, will preside. In practice, meetings will only be attended by a small number of Councillors rather than the full Cabinet. Most of the powers vested in the Governor-General, such as appointments and the
authorisation Authorization or authorisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is the function of specifying access rights/privileges to resources, which is related to general inform ...
of budgets, are exercisable only by "the Governor-General in Council" – that is, under advice from the Federal Executive Council. The Council acts as a formal ratification body for decisions of the Cabinet. In a parallel manner to the
Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in other ...
given to legislative Acts by the Governor-General after they have passed both Houses of Parliament, proposed executive actions will receive the approval of the Governor-General in Council after they have been agreed to by the
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
and Cabinet. An example of a Federal Executive Council meeting which the Governor-General presided over was the meeting on 11 September 2022, when the Executive Council advised the Governor-General
David Hurley General David John Hurley, (born 26 August 1953) is an Australian former senior officer in the Australian Army who has served as the 27th governor-general of Australia since 1 July 2019. He was previously the 38th governor of New South Wales ...
to proclaim
Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person to ...
as the new head of state of Australia. The proclamation of Charles III was an example of a power exercisable only by the Governor-General in Council.


See also

* Executive Council (Commonwealth countries)


References

{{Authority control Government of Australia Privy councils