Edward Gough Whitlam was the 21st prime minister of Australia,serving from December 1972 to November 1975. To date the longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP),he was notable for being the head of a reformist and socially progressive government that ended with his controversial dismissal by the then-governor-general of Australia,Sir John Kerr,at the climax of the 1975 constitutional crisis. Whitlam remains the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office by a governor-general.
The 1975 Australian constitutional crisis,also known simply as the Dismissal,culminated on 11 November 1975 with the dismissal from office of the prime minister,Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party (ALP),by Sir John Kerr,the Governor-General who then commissioned the leader of the Opposition,Malcolm Fraser of the Liberal Party,as prime minister to hold a new election. It has been described as the greatest political and constitutional crisis in Australian history.
Republicanism in Australia is a movement to change Australia's system of government from a constitutional monarchy to a republic;presumably,a form of parliamentary republic that would replace the monarch of Australia with a non-royal Australian head of state. It is opposed to monarchism in Australia. Republicanism was first espoused in Australia before Federation in 1901. After a period of decline following Federation,the movement again became prominent at the end of the 20th century after successive legal and socio-cultural changes loosened Australia's ties with the United Kingdom.
Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen was an Australian politician. He was the longest-serving premier of Queensland,holding office from 1968 to 1987 as state leader of the National Party.
The Joh for Canberra campaign,initially known as the Joh for PM campaign,was an attempt by Queensland National Party premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen to become Prime Minister of Australia. The campaign was announced in January 1987 and drew substantial support from Queensland businessmen and some conservative politicians. The campaign caused a split in the federal Coalition. It did not attract widespread support and collapsed in June 1987. The Australian Labor Party,led by Bob Hawke,went on to win the 1987 federal election with an increased majority,gaining its highest-ever number of seats. Bjelke-Petersen came under increasing scrutiny as the Fitzgerald Inquiry gained traction,and was forced out of politics altogether in December 1987.
Ronald Leslie Doyle Boswell is a former Australian politician. He was a Senator for Queensland from 1983 to 2014,representing the National Party. He was the party's Senate leader from 1990 to 2007,a record term. He was also a parliamentary secretary in the Howard government from 1999 to 2003. He was Father of the Senate from 2008 until his retirement in 2014.
The Federal Executive Council is a body established by section 62 of the Australian Constitution to advise the governor-general of Australia,on the matters of the federal government. The council comprises,at least notionally,all current and former Commonwealth ministers 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 facto executive power. In practice,this power is used to legally enact the decisions already made by Federal Cabinet,due to the practices of the Westminster system making the cabinet a de facto authority in its own right.
Michael John Ahern was an Australian National Party politician who was Premier of Queensland from December 1987 to September 1989. After a long career in the government of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen,Ahern became his successor amid the controversy caused by the Fitzgerald Inquiry into official corruption. Ahern's consensus style and political moderation contrasted strongly with Bjelke-Petersen's leadership,but he could not escape the division and strife caused by his predecessor's downfall.
Florence Isabel Bjelke-Petersen was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Senate from 1981 to 1993,and was the wife of the longest-serving Premier of Queensland,Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. She was styled as Lady Bjelke-Petersen upon her husband's knighthood,and was also known informally as Lady Flo.
Malcolm Arthur Colston was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Queensland from 1975 to 1999. He was a member of the Labor Party until 1996,when he resigned to sit as an independent following a dispute over his candidacy for Deputy President of the Senate. Colston was a schoolteacher before entering politics,and held a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Queensland.
Sir Walter "Wally" Benjamin Campbell,was an Australian judge,administrator and governor. He was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland,Chancellor of the University of Queensland and the 21st Governor of Queensland from 1985 to 1992.
The Whitlam government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party. The government commenced when Labor defeated the McMahon government at the 1972 federal election,ending a record 23 years of continuous Coalition government. It was terminated by Governor-General Sir John Kerr following the 1975 constitutional crisis and was succeeded by the Fraser government—the sole occasion in Australian history when an elected federal government was dismissed by the governor-general.
The following lists events that happened during 1976 in Australia.
John Owen Stone is a former Australian public servant and politician. He was Secretary to the Treasury between 1979 and 1984,and a senator for Queensland,representing the National Party,from 1987 to 1990.
The 1989 Queensland state election was held in the Australian state of Queensland on 2 December 1989 to elect the 89 members of the state's Legislative Assembly. This was the first election following the downfall of eight-term premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen at the end of 1987.
The 1987 Australian federal election was held in Australia on 11 July 1987,following the granting of a double dissolution on 5 June by the Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen. Consequently,all 148 seats in the House of Representatives as well as all 76 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Australian Labor Party,led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke,defeated the opposition Liberal Party of Australia,led by John Howard and the National Party of Australia led by Ian Sinclair. This was the first,and to date only,time the Labor Party won a third consecutive election.
David Edward Byrne is an Australian activist and politician. A former Augustinian friar and Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland,he later moved to Cape York,became an advocate for Aboriginal land rights and co-founded the Cape York Land Council with Noel Pearson.
Sir Sydney Schubert was an Australian public servant best known for the work he did in Queensland during the 1970s and 1980s as Co-ordinator General of the Premier's Department,and for his positions as chancellor of Bond University and chief executive of Daikyo Australia.
The National Party of Australia –Queensland (NPA-Q),commonly known as the Queensland Nationals,National Party of Queensland or simply the Nationals,was the Queensland branch of the National Party of Australia (NPA) until 2008. Prior to 1974,it was known as the Country Party. The party was disestablished in 2008,when it merged with the Queensland division of the Liberal Party of Australia to form the Liberal National Party of Queensland (LNP).
The 1997 Australian Constitutional Convention election was held between 3 November and 9 December 1997 to elect 76 of the 152 members of the 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention,which took place from 2 to 13 February the following year.
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