According to Sir Zelman Cowan, the reserve powers of the Crown include the power to dismiss a ministry, to grant or refuse dissolution, and to designate a prime minister. Few legal observers would deny the existence of the reserve powers, although in controversial cases there is a debate as to the manner and time of their use.
In Australia, these powers are exercisable at the federal level by the governor-general. They are not reviewable by the courts, not being justiciable, nor is it for The Queen to review their exercise. .It is therefore inappropriate for a viceroy to discuss their exercise in advance with the Sovereign.
In addition, it is relevant at this point to recall that The Queen of Australia can alone exercise certain important powers of the Crown. These relate to the appointment and dismissal of the viceroys. This is normally done on advice tendered in writing in an original document, but there is argument that this too is in the nature of a reserve power.
Certainly there are indications that it would be an error to regard The Queen as an automaton, assenting without question to advice, particularly that relating to a dismissal.
The existence of these powers is an important constitutional check and balance on the exercise of power.
In "The truth about what happened on November 11, 1975 '' ( The Australian 2 June 2014) Sir David Smith corrects two errors in Mark Day's summary of the dismissal of Prime Minister Whitlam. As Official Secretary to Sir John Kerr, Sir David was intimately involve din the events of the day.
“Shortly after noon on November 11, Kerr, having consulted secretly with Barwick, called Whitlam to Government House and withdrew his au..viagra.com commission” (“On a slippery path to the cliff”, 30/5).
Neither statement is true. The consultation with Garfield Barwick was not secret. On the afternoon of Monday, November 10, 1975, every newspaper represented in the parliamentary press gallery in Canberra received the customary vice-regal news telling them that the governor-general had received the chief justice at Admiralty House that day, and that the chief justice had later returned to Admiralty House to have lunch with the governor-general. The vice-regal notice was published in the usual newspapers next morning.
The governor-general John Kerr did not call Gough Whitlam to Government House on November 11. Whitlam chose that day to call on the governor-general to advise him to order a half-Senate election to be held on December 13 to elect senators who would not take their places in the Senate for another six and a half months.How that would have solved the government’s and the nation’s impending financial crisis defies imagination.
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day or VE Day, was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. The Royal Family appeared several times to cheering crowds in London. Winston Churchill joined them.
He threw himself into heavy Taliban fire to protect a wounded comrade – but Corporal Daniel Keighran VC still gets nervous just like anyone else, according to Julian Drape's report in The Sydney Morning Herald .
On Wednesday Corporal Keighran, with his wife Kathryn, stepped through the door of the Queen’s private apartments in Buckingham Palace, into a richly-decorated room overlooking the gardens, usually reserved for greeting heads of state.
Reserve Powers of the Crown 
![[ Sir Samuel Griffith ]](http://www.norepublic.com.au/images/stories/griffith, samuel.jpg "[ Sir Samuel Griffith ]")
