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minority governmentA minority government is one where the governing
party
does not control a majority of
seats in the
assembly
, and has not formed a
coalition
agreement with another
party in the assembly to establish a parliamentary majority and to
share
ministerial posts
. A
minority government is kept in power by an understanding that the
government
will gain the support of
another party (or one or more
independent
members) who will vote to
support the government. This support does not involve
the party becoming part of the government’s ministerial
team, and the support may not extend to supporting all of the
government’s legislative program.
The essence of a minority government is that the support keeping
the government in office can be withdrawn at any time, triggering
the loss of the government’s majority in the
assembly. Loss of majority support in the assembly
gives the
premier
two choices: the premier can
resign in favour of the leader of another party who can generate
the support of a majority of assembly members; or—and
this will be the usual outcome—the premier can
recommend to the
lieutenant governor
that parliament
is
dissolved
and a
general election
is held.
Minority governments are not necessarily unstable or short lived
if they can come to an agreement with another party to support the
government. Even with this support, the
government must work continually to gain support beyond its own
partisan supporters for every piece of legislation.
Such a situation makes governments extremely responsive to the
views of members of parliament, and open to parliamentary scrutiny
in ways which rarely occur under
majority governments
.
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