[1]Accordingly, an administrator is appointed when the Governor-General dies, resigns or is absent from Australia.
By convention, the administrator is usually the longest serving state governor, who holds a dormant commission from the sovereign (currently Charles III).
There have been four separate occasions during which a governor of one of the states has ascended to the office of Governor-General by dormant commission due to unforeseen circumstances: On 11 May 2003, the letters patent commissioning the Governor-General were amended to enable Peter Hollingworth to stand aside as Governor-General following a controversy about his past handling of child abuse allegations,[2] and Tasmanian Governor Sir Guy Green was appointed Administrator[3] until Hollingworth's permanent replacement (Major General Michael Jeffery) took office on 8 August 2003.
In the absence of both a governor and lieutenant-governor, the chief of the state's supreme court or the next most senior puisne judge, traditionally holding, ex officio, the position of lieutenant-governor, assumes his or her position as head of the executive until a governor is appointed.
Unlike the states, the territories fall within the exclusive legislative and administrative competence of the Commonwealth.
Upon ACT Self-Government it became a separate territory located on the Australian mainland; for the most part it is populated with Defence Force personnel.