[Not in current Constitution]

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The Governor-General:

(i) Shall be appointed for a term which expires no later than six months after the date of polling for the next general election of Members of the House; and

(ii) May be removed prior to the expiry of that term;

by a resolution passed by two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives who vote on the resolution.

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The Governor-General:

(i) Shall be appointed for a term which expires no later than six months after the date of polling for the next general election of Members of the House; and

(ii) May be removed prior to the expiry of that term;

by a resolution passed by two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives who vote on the resolution.

58B.1 The requirement for a two-thirds majority should ensure the appointment of a genuinely impartial person to chair Parliamentary debates.

58B.2 After appointment, it is possible that there could be significant dissatisfaction with the performance of the Governor-General which nevertheless falls short of the two thirds majority required for removal. It is therefore preferable to have the Governor-General's term expire by the passing of time, following which reappointment would again require a two thirds majority. The fixing of this term does not however guarantee the Governor-General the position for the duration of the term. It will always be possible for the House to remove a Governor-General who performs poorly, provided two thirds of the members agree.

58B.3 No purpose would be served by specifying criteria for appointment or removal. There is no reason to limit the House's discretion over such matters.

58B.4 The current practice of usually appointing Governors-General for five years is irrelevant. With the change in role, it is better that each newly elected House have the ability to select its presiding officer, rather than be bound to accept one appointed for a long term by a prior House. Every resolution for appointment will need to take account of the possibility that the next election will occur sooner than the three year period prescribed in s.28. It would probably be better for all such resolutions to simply repeat the words of subsection (i) when describing the Governor-General's term of office.

58B.5 There are several dates of relevance to elections: the date of issue of the writs to commence the election, the date for the closing of nominations, polling day, the date of return of the writs and so on. The six month period will date from the most important of those dates, polling day, as over time the other dates could vary across different electorates. The word "polling" has been used in the Commonwealth Electoral Act to mean the date on which everyone votes, so there is unlikely to be any difficulty interpreting the word in the future.