The Reserve Powers in Times of Political Crisis: The Dutton/Turnbull Leadership Challenge and Royal Assent to the Medevac Bill and Brexit Bills

Abstract

The period of 2018–19 threw up political crises in Australia and the United Kingdom that raised circumstances in which the reserve powers of the Queen or the Governor-General might have been exercised. This article discusses in depth the 2018 challenge to Prime Minister Turnbull’s leadership, including how the Governor-General should have responded if he had been asked to dissolve Parliament in the midst of the challenge or if he had been advised not to appoint Dutton as Prime Minister due to concerns about his eligibility to sit in Parliament. The second part deals with the question of whether royal assent should be refused, upon ministerial advice, to a bill, such as the Medevac Bill in Australia and two Brexit delay bills in the United Kingdom, which were passed against the wishes of the relevant government, including when procedural or non-justiciable constitutional requirements were breached in the passage of the bills. It concludes that the best way of resolving such issues is to resort to the application of fundamental constitutional principles.