How is the Administrator of the Commonwealth Selected?
Apart from the appointment of a Governor-General the Letters Patent specify the appointment of a person as Administrator of the Commonwealth and a person as a Deputy of the Governor-General. By convention, the longest serving State Governor is appointed as Administrator. The Queen appoints the Administrator on the advice of the Prime Minister. Dormant commissions for the office of Administrator are normally held by all State Governors, thus allowing an Administrator to be appointed in the event of the Governor-General’s death, incapacity, removal or ‘temporary absence for any reason’. Under the Constitution and the Letters Patent the Administrator is empowered to exercise all the Governor-General’s powers and functions.
