[AusNOG] Ok Election over where's my cash.

[Glen Turner]

> The government should be out of caretaker mode by Monday you would think.

Here's how it works.

The Australian Electoral Commission issues a Declaration of the Poll for 
each seat. The last postal votes are valid until close of business on 
Friday 15th. Given the close nature of the election you wont see many 
Declarations before then.

If the Prime Minister-elect wants some Senators as ministers then those 
might be Declared even later than House seats, depending upon how close to 
a quota the candidate is.

The Constitutional requirement is that Ministers must be able to take 
their seat in Parliament within three months.  So the PM-elect can 
recommend candidates prior to a Declaration, but would be a fool to do so 
if the counting is tight.[1]

Then the PM-elect goes to the Governor-General with a list of recommended 
Members of the new Parliament to be made ministers. The GG chooses to 
follow the recommendation and declares the PM-elect and the listed MPs to 
be Members of the Executive Council. The GG then declares the PM-elect and 
MPs to be Ministers.

Then a Special Commonwealth Gazette is publishing listed every Act of 
Parliament and which Minister has the powers of granted by that Act. Ditto 
for some Treaties.

The result is a Minister with executive power for the listed Acts, and the 
caretaker conventions for when an Act (and its subsequent Regulations) has 
no minister are no longer relevant.

-glen

[1] An unelected person is no longer a Minister after three months. 
Obviously an unelected person could never speak on the Floor of the 
Parliament. A wise GG might choose not to follow the PM-elect's 
recommendation and choose not to appoint an unelected candidate who isn't 
assured of becoming a Member of Parliament.