Without (political) security of tenure, an office-holder may find his or her ability to carry out their powers, functions and duties restricted by the fear that whoever disapproves of any of their decisions may be able to easily remove them from office in revenge.
Security of tenure offers protection, by ensuring that an office-holder cannot be victimised for exercising their powers, functions and duties.
Lack of security of tenure is regarded by some commentators as having contributed to the controversial decision of Australian governor-general Sir John Kerr to dismiss the prime minister, Gough Whitlam, in 1975.
However, later that decade, Australia's constitutional convention produced a proposed model of Australian president that continued to lack security of tenure.
During the 1999 referendum on becoming a republic, some critics asserted that the failure to provide security of tenure meant that the proposed presidency was fatally flawed from conception, with the officeholder unable to intervene except through a sudden, unannounced action such as that performed by Kerr in November 1975.