Solution is simple: let people decide
25.08.2010



By: TONY KOCH

THE advice from one of the country's most respected legal practitioners to the Governor-General on how to settle the current political crisis is simple: ``Let the people decide.''
Quentin Bryce could use elements of the controversial precedent set by then governor-general John Kerr in 1975 when he sacked the Whitlam government, Bill Pincus QC, a former president of the Australian Law Council, suggested yesterday.
The important element that would bring about stable government is that another election should be called soon, Mr Pincus said.
``Sir John Kerr, who sacked the federal Labor government in 1975, was much criticised by the Labor side which had appointed him.
``Whether he did it as cleverly as he might have done is arguable, but he achieved the result that the government, which could not guarantee supply because of Senate obstruction, ceased.
``He installed Malcolm Fraser as prime minister and instructed him that an election had to be held as soon as possible, and so the people of Australia settled the issue.
``A situation with some similarities arose in Queensland in 1987, when the governor and former chief justice Sir Walter Campbell put an end to the political career of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen -- who incidentally had appointed him to the vice-regal position.
``Does anybody really believe that both Sir John Kerr and Sir Walter Campbell would not have had a
lot of sleepless nights over those decisions?
``But they did their duty as they saw fit, and the political impasse was addressed.''
Mr Pincus, a retired Federal Court judge who also served for nine years on Queensland's Court of Appeal, said it was nonsense to suggest Dr Bryce could not make necessary decisions because of a possible conflict of interest brought about through her daughter being married to Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten.
He said Ms Bryce had ``a discretion unfettered by any law'' to act to solve any impasse she saw inhibiting stable government.
``In doing what has to be done, the Governor-General will get little guidance from the law,'' Mr Pincus stated. ``The problems are typically practical ones, involving common sense and fairness rather than legal rules . . . A defect of our Constitution, some think, is that it leaves the governor-general role undefined in most respects but gives the office-holder sweeping powers.''
Mr Pincus said that in deciding who should govern, the Governor-General was not obliged to take notice of promises made by the independents .
``A government which is dependent on the whims of a few no doubt well-meaning independent MPs would be a very weak one,'' he said.