Sir Paul Hasluck Books

The Office of Governor-General

The Quaile Memorial Lecture delivered in Adelaide on 24 October 1972 by Sir Paul Hasluck. Published by Melbourne University Press in 1979.
by Paul Hasluck

Publication Details:
Melbourne University Press, 1979
Paperback 47 pp
ISBN: 0 522 84187 2

Cover notes:
"The events of November 1975 sparked off a lively debate as to what the Governor-General does. The real point at issue in that controversy was not whether the Governor-General has the power to dismiss a Prime Minister. The fact that the power was exercised is proof that the power exists. The question to be asked is whether the Governor-General was justified by the facts as he saw and interpreted them, and, if he were justified, whether he was wise to use the power.

There is a difference between an extreme situation and a customary action. The controversy over the dismissal of a Prime Minister concentrated attention on one aspect, but in this lucid essay Sir Paul Hasluck sets out a wide range of Governor-General's duties and the place of the office in the whole structure of Australian government.

No citizen who is interested in how he is governed will fail to read this account of the role of the Head of State written, as it were, 'from the inside'."

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