What power does the Queen have on Australia?
She has very little, and the Governor-General does everything that the Queen would otherwise do if she were actually there. Removing the Prime Minister has happened. In 1975, the Senate refused to pass Gough Whitlam’s budget, and eventually Sir John Kerr, the Governor-General, sacked Whitlam and appointed Malcolm Fraser instead on instruction to call an immediate election. The situation was desperate as without passing the Budget, the government would soon run out of money as no new taxes could be collected. The Governor-General formally appoints the Prime Minister, and so has the power to remove them too. In theory the Queen could have done that as the Governor-General is merely her representative exercising power on her behalf, but he is closer to it as he’s actually Australian (well, she, now).
