Significant functions of the governor-general include giving royal assent to bills passed by the houses of parliament, issuing writs for elections, exercising executive power on the advice of the Federal Executive Council, formally appointing government officials (including the prime minister, other ministers, judges and ambassadors), acting as commander-in-chief of the Australian Defence Force, and bestowing Australian honours.

At the end of this initial term, a commission may be extended for a short time, usually to avoid conflict with an election or during political difficulties.

In 2003, ex-archbishop Peter Hollingworth voluntarily stood aside while controversial allegations against him were managed, and the letters patent of the office were amended to take account of this circumstance.

[18] By convention, the longest-serving state governor holds a dormant commission, allowing an assumption of office to commence whenever a vacancy occurs.

By convention, this may only be upon advice from the prime minister, who retains responsibility for selecting an immediate replacement or letting the vacancy provisions take effect.

Casey had twice called McMahon into Yarralumla to give him a "dressing down" over his poor relationship with deputy prime minister John McEwen, which he believed was affecting the government.

[26] This assent gives bills that have been passed by the houses of parliament the force of law, with effect either 28 days after being signed, on a date to be fixed later by proclamation or otherwise as provided in the act.

[51] Kerr acted following the blocking of supply by the opposition controlled Senate, arguing that this gave him both the right and duty to dismiss the government when they did not resign or advise an election.

Governors-general generally become patrons of various charitable institutions, present honours and awards, host functions for various groups of people including ambassadors to and from other countries, and travel widely throughout Australia.

The public role adopted by Sir John Kerr was curtailed considerably after the constitutional crisis of 1975; Sir William Deane's public statements on political issues produced some hostility towards him; and some charities disassociated themselves from Peter Hollingworth after the issue of his management of sex abuse cases during his time as Anglican archbishop of Brisbane became a matter of controversy.

[73] However, in 1970 governor-general Paul Hasluck refused prime minister John Gorton's request to authorise a Pacific Islands Regiment peacekeeping mission in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, on the grounds that cabinet had not been consulted.

Additionally, the initial letters patent of Queen Victoria purported to create and empower the office of governor-general, despite their assignment already in the Constitution.

[80] This view was also held by Andrew Inglis Clark, senior judge of the Supreme Court of Tasmania, who with W. Harrison Moore (a contributor to the first draft of the constitution put before the 1897 Adelaide Convention and professor of law at the University of Melbourne), postulating that the letters patent and the royal instructions issued by Queen Victoria were unnecessary "or even of doubtful legality".

[79] However, the current interpretation of the Constitution is that all royal prerogatives are exercisable by the governor-general under section 61 and in recognition of this, the vesting of additional powers ended in 1987.

[12] Commonwealth Solicitor-General Maurice Byers stated in 1974: "The constitutional prescription is that executive power is exercisable by the governor-general although vested in the Queen.

[86][87] This remains the case even when the sovereign is in the country: solicitor-general Kenneth Bailey, prior to the first tour of Australia by its reigning monarch in 1954, explained the position by saying:[83] the Constitution expressly vests in the Governor-General the power or duty to perform a number of the Crown's functions in the Legislature and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth ...

In the face of this provision, I feel it is difficult to contend that the Queen, even though present in Australia, may exercise in person functions of executive government which are specifically assigned by the constitution to the Governor-General.The monarch did not overturn the actions of governor-general Sir John Kerr in his dismissal of the prime ministership and government of Gough Whitlam during the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, with the Queen's private secretary arguing that the power to commission the prime minister was "clearly placed within the jurisdiction of the governor-general, and The Queen has no part in the decisions which the Governor-General must take in accordance with the Constitution".

[89] For transportation, the governor-general has access to a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI limousine for ceremonial occasions or an armoured BMW 7 Series for ordinary official business.

In 1986 the letters patent were amended again, and governors-general appointed from that time were again, ex officio, entitled to the post-nominal AC (although if they already held a knighthood in the order that superior rank was retained).

Until 1989, all governors-general were members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom and thus held the additional style The Right Honourable for life.

From that time until 2014, governors-general did not receive automatic titles or honours, other than the post-nominal AC by virtue of being Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Australia.

After the initial confusion of the Hopetoun Blunder, he appointed the first prime minister of Australia, Edmund Barton, to a caretaker government, with the inaugural 1901 federal election not occurring until March.

They had the right to reserve legislation passed by the Parliament of Australia:[26] in effect, to ask the Colonial Office in London for an opinion before giving the royal assent.

[105] In 1919, prime minister Billy Hughes sent a memorandum to the Colonial Office in which he requested "a real and effective voice in the selection of the King's representative".

The following year, as Ronald Munro Ferguson's term was about to expire, Hughes cabled the Colonial Office and asked that the appointment be made in accordance with the memorandum.

[107] In 1925, under prime minister Stanley Bruce, the same practice was followed for the appointment of Forster's successor John Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven, with the Australian government publicly stating that his name "had been submitted, with others, to the Commonwealth ministry, who had selected him".

In 1930, King George V and the Australian prime minister James Scullin discussed the appointment of a new governor-general to replace Lord Stonehaven, whose term was coming to an end.

The King maintained that it was now his sole prerogative to choose a governor-general, and he wanted Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood for the Australian post.

This was not because of any lack of regard for Isaacs personally, but because the British government considered that the choice of governors-general was, since the 1926 Imperial Conference, a matter for the monarch's decision alone.

However, when the Palace papers were released in 2020, it was revealed that the Fraser government in 1976 considered it "highly desirable" that Prince Charles become governor-general; however the Queen strongly indicated her disapproval of her son taking up the role until "such time as he has a settled married life".