Commander in chief of military plus#

So at first glance it could seem as though the Governor-General might have some prerogative here. You’ll notice that this section does not refer to the ‘Governor-General in Council’, but rather the power is vested in the Governor-General as the Queen’s representative. The command in chief of the naval and military forces of the Commonwealth is vested in the Governor‑General as the Queen’s representative. Section 68 Command of naval and military forces Then there are a few more sections outlining the number of Ministers, salaries, the requirement that Ministers must sit in Parliament and the appointment of civil servants, before we get to Section 68: The ‘Governor-General in Council’ appoints Ministers who are then members of the Federal Executive Council (section 64).

If you have a read through the Constitution you will see that term is stated 13 times. The executive power is vested in the Queen and exercised by the Governor-General (section 61), who is advised by the Federal Executive Council (section 62) and who must act on the advice of this Council when the Constitution refers to ‘Governor-General in Council’ (section 63). So this week we take a look at Section 68 of the Australian Constitution which stipulates the command of the naval and military forces.

While it’s clear that the President is the Commander-in-Chief in the US, it is less clear and somewhat confusing about who is responsible for this role in Australia. Questions and comments about the role of Commander-in-Chief in Australia and the US kept popping up. We had a huge social media response last week to our comparative article about the separation of powers in Australia and the US.

Commander in chief of military plus#

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