Page "Governor-General of Australia" Paragraph 7

The Prime Minister then provides the nomination to the monarch.

The monarch may, in theory, decline the Prime Minister's advice and ask for another nomination or even appoint a person of his or her own choice, but no such cases have been recorded since November 1930, when James Scullin's proposed appointment of Sir Isaac Isaacs was fiercely opposed by the British government.

This was not because of any lack of regard for Isaacs personally, but because the British government considered that the choice of Governors-General was ( since the 1926 Imperial Conference ) a matter for the monarch's decision alone.

( However, it became very clear in a conversation between Scullin and King George V's Private Secretary, Lord Stamfordham, on 11 November 1930, that this was merely the official reason for the objection, the real reason being that an Australian, no matter how highly regarded personally, was not considered appropriate to be Governor-General.

) Scullin was equally insistent that the monarch must act on the relevant Prime Minister's direct advice ( the practice until 1926 was that Dominion prime ministers advised the monarch indirectly, through the British government, which effectively had a veto over any proposal it did not agree with ).

Scullin cited the precedents of the Prime Minister of South Africa, J.

B. M. Hertzog, who had recently insisted on his choice of Lord Clarendon as Governor-General of that country, and the selection of an Irishman as Governor-General of the Irish Free State – both of these appointments were agreed to despite royal disfavour.