The question of how governments are chosen is a crucial issue arising from the Dismissal of the Whitlam government.
The Australian Constitution sets out the way in which our political system operates. It consists of 128 sections.
Australia is a Federal system: we have a National Government (can also be called Federal, Commonwealth or Australian) and six state Governments, plus two territory governments.
The filling of casual Senate vacancies was crucial to the constitutional crisis of 1975.
Without the breaking of the convention surrounding casual vacancies, the blocking of Supply by the Senate would not have been possible.
The convention was straight-forward: In the event of a senator’s death or resignation, the Constitution requires that a replacement be appointed by the Parliament of the State represented by the senator. In practice, the convention was to appoint a replacement from the same party, so as to maintain the balance of numbers in the Senate.
Following the elections of 1974, the composition of the Senate was:
On these figures, the Senate could not block the Budget, or other money bills, because the vote would be tied, and therefore defeated.
The first move to block passage of the Supply bills in the Senate came at 4.35pm on Wednesday, October 15, 1975 when Senator Reg Withers rose to speak on the Loan Bill.
In a 25-minute speech, Withers outlined the Opposition’s argument that delaying Supply was a legitimate parliamentary tactic and called on Prime Minister Whitlam to call an immediate election.
Withers moved an amendment to the Loan Bill that was passed by 29 votes to 28 at approximately 5.26pm. Senator Albert Patrick Field was absent, his position having been challenged in the High Court. Senator Cleaver Bunton, the independent appointed to fill Senator Lionel Murphy’s vacancy, voted with the ALP government, as did the Liberal Movement’s Senator Steele Hall.
Withers served in the Senate in 1966 and again from 1968 until 1987. He was Lord Mayor of Perth, between 1991 and 1994. Withers died on November 15, 2014, aged 90, just three weeks after Whitlam’s death.