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Rethinking Caretaker Conventions for Australian Governments
Author(s) -
Davis Glyn,
Ling Alice,
Scales Bill,
Wilkins Roger
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.00220
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , state (computer science) , political science , code (set theory) , public administration , political economy , public relations , sociology , computer science , philosophy , linguistics , set (abstract data type) , algorithm , programming language
Australia has well‐established conventions for caretaker governments. These conventions regulate how a government should operate once an election is called, and have been documented for some decades. Yet the current conventions date from an era when elections usually produced clear and immediate results. Can our caretaker conventions cope with the emerging reality of indecisive elections and long delays before a new government is confirmed? This paper canvasses the state of Australia's caretaker conventions and offers suggestions for an expanded, contemporary code.