Dies geschieht durch den Federal Executive Council , das Beratungs- und Ratifizierungsorgan der Exekutive in Australien, welches den Generalgouverneur bei seiner Tätigkeit berät, bzw.

Der Premierminister ist ex officio, also von Amts wegen, Mitglied dieses Rates. Die Macht des Premierministers wird durch eine Reihe von Einschränkungen begrenzt.

Sofern er als Vorsitzender seiner Partei abgelöst oder wenn ihm von Repräsentantenhaus das Vertrauen in einem Misstrauensvotum entzogen wird, muss er von seinem Amt zurücktreten bzw.

Gesetzesvorlagen müssen im Rahmen des Gesetzgebungsverfahrens von beiden Kammern des Parlaments Repräsentantenhaus und Senat gebilligt werden.

Oftmals weist der Senat eine andere politische Mehrheit auf als das Repräsentantenhaus, dessen Mehrheit den Premierminister bestellt. Dieser Verfassungsartikel benennt allerdings das Amt des Premierministers nicht explizit, sondern spricht lediglich von Ministern an sich.

In der Praxis bedeutet dies, dass sich das Amt des Premierministers direkt aus der Funktion als Vorsitzender des Kabinetts ableitet. United Australia Party Koalition.

Lyons I. Lyons II. Lyons III. Lyons IV. Sir Earle Page — Country Party of Australia Koalition. Robert Menzies — Menzies I.

Menzies II. Menzies III. Arthur Fadden — John Curtin — Curtin I. Curtin II. Frank Forde — Ben Chifley — Chifley I.

Chifley II. Sir Robert Menzies — Liberal Party of Australia Koalition. Menzies IV. Menzies V. Menzies VI. Menzies VII. Menzies VIII.

Menzies IX. Menzies X. Harold Holt — Holt I. Holt II. John McEwen — John Gorton — Senator — Higgins, Victoria, — Liberal Koalition. Gorton I.

Gorton II. William McMahon — Gough Whitlam — Whitlam I. Whitlam II. Whitlam III. Malcolm Fraser — Fraser I.

Fraser II. Fraser III. Fraser IV. Bob Hawke — Hawke I. Hawke II. The Premier must resign his or her commission to the Governor if he or she loses the confidence of the Legislative Assembly, either because his or her party is defeated at a General Election or because he or she loses a vote of confidence in the house.

Premiers may also resign for other reasons, such as losing the confidence of their own party. The Australian states were founded as British colonies, and executive power was held by a Governor or sometimes a Lieutenant-Governor appointed by the British Government see Governors of the Australian states.

From the s the power of the Governors was gradually transferred to legislative bodies, at first appointed, later partly elected, and finally fully elected.

Victoria gained full responsible parliamentary government in , New South Wales , South Australia and Tasmania in , Queensland in and Western Australia owing to its much smaller population in Until the rise of the Australian Labor Party in the s, the Australian colonies did not have formal party systems, although many colonial politicians called themselves Liberals or Conservatives.

Ministries were usually formed on the basis of personal or factional loyalties, and rose and fell with great frequency as loyalties changed. Colonial politics were commonly regarded as parochial, corrupt and cynical, and in many cases they were.

The rise of Labor forced the colonies to move towards a two-party system of Labor versus non-Labor, although state politics remained more personalised and less ideological than national politics for many years.

Since about state politics have followed much the same party pattern as Australian national politics see Politics of Australia. Although the legislative powers of the states are defined in the Constitution , the real power of the Australian Premiers has been declining steadily ever since Federation in , as the power and responsibility of the national government has expanded at the expense of the states.

The most important transfer of power came in , when in the interests of national unity during World War II the states gave up their power to levy their own income taxes to the Commonwealth.

Since then the states' finances have essentially been controlled by the Commonwealth. Since , such meetings occur as the Council of Australian Governments COAG , which also includes the Chief Ministers of the territories and a representative of local government.

With the exception of South Australia , every state and territory of Australia has had a female head of government, all but two of whom have represented the Australian Labor Party.

They are:. Of the state leaders, all but Palaszczuk succeeded male Premiers of their own party who had resigned mid-term; in three cases Lawrence, Kirner and Keneally , their predecessors' resignations occurred after losing the support of their parliamentary colleagues.

The governments led by Lawrence, Kirner, Keneally and Giddings were defeated at the subsequent elections.

Anna Bligh, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Gladys Berejiklian are the only women who have received a popular mandate as Premier of an Australian state 21 March , 31 January and 23 March Palaszczuk is also the first woman to have led a party from Opposition to Government.

Rosemary Follett Labor was elected as the inaugural Chief Minister of the ACT in , nine months before any woman became premier of a state.

Clare Martin was the only one of these three women to lead a majority government. Of all female Premiers and Chief Ministers, only Clare Martin and Annastacia Palaszczuk have gained re-election after successfully completing a term from election to election.

Rosemary Follett did win two consecutive elections, but had an interrupted term of service from 5 December when a successful motion of no confidence passed by establishing a new government led by Trevor Kaine to 6 June when another motion of no confidence was passed, this time against Trevor Kaine, re-establishing Follett as Chief Minister.