Scandinavia and the World
Scandinavia and the World

Comments #9532954:


Australia DOES have a Royal Family. Despite being an soverig 18 9, 4:49pm

Now, there's an interesting twist on that. Under the Australian Constitution HM has a variety of powers, but she _can't_ use any of them. She has to appoint a governor-general to exercise them for her. And the governor-general has to take "advice" about how to exercise the powers of HM from the government, not from HM.

The monarch's only powers in Australia come from an act of Parliament, the Royal Powers Act (1953). And that got passed because she was about to visit, and the government wanted her to preside over a meeting of the Federal Executive Council while she was here, but discovered that that as far as the Constitution went she _couldn't_.

Now, HM's powers under state constitutions are not necessarily so limited. The queen of an Australian state can exercise some of her powers herself, rather than compulsorily delegating them to a state governor, but only if she is present in person.