Tenure
The Governor-General holds office at the "pleasure" of the Queen, under clause II of the Letters Patent. It is traditional that an appointed individual act as the Queen's representative for a minimum of five years, but the New Zealand Prime Minister may advise the Queen to extend (or shorten) the Vice-Regal's tenure. For instance, Dame Silvia Cartwright would have been in office for five years on 4 April 2006, but her term as Governor-General was extended by the Queen on the advice of Prime Minister Helen Clark, who deemed that "that the selection and appointment process not coincide with the pre-election period".
Read more about this topic: Governor-General Of New Zealand
Famous quotes containing the word tenure:
“It might be seen by what tenure men held the earth. The smallest stream is mediterranean sea, a smaller ocean creek within the land, where men may steer by their farm bounds and cottage lights. For my own part, but for the geographers, I should hardly have known how large a portion of our globe is water, my life has chiefly passed within so deep a cove. Yet I have sometimes ventured as far as to the mouth of my Snug Harbor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A politician never forgets the precarious nature of elective life. We have never established a practice of tenure in public office.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)