Come now, Cranky. That wasn't the UK or the Queen. It was Sir John Kerr, G-G, Australian enough to be born in Balmain and to get drunk on Melbourne Cup Day. (Not sure about the predilection for top hats. Where did that come from?)Crankyfeet said:As Drongo and classic said, my take also is Australia is conservative, yet also socialistic (comparitive to America... not to Europe).
IMHO....Links to the UK are largely hypothetical... the Queen has only intervened once that I can remember (sacking Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975 when the Senate was blocking supply bills to pass and the country was in an economic mess ... though not that different from the mess the rest of the world was in .... it was a very divisive action though).
Kerr made the decision, the Queen didn't, although he is supposed to have asked Garfield Barwick what he thought he should do. No surprises as to the response.
One school of thought says that each of Whitlam and Kerr had power to dismiss the other, and Kerr dismissed Whitlam before Whitlam could sack Kerr. What an odd way to run a country.
It wasn't the first time a Governor or Governor-General has used the reserve powers, either. Philip Game sacked Jack Lang in 1932 or thereabouts. Jack Lang: there's a man who really didn't like the Poms.