Federal Government Uptime Monitor*
27 days of constitutional crisis in 50 years
99.854487%
Uptime since January 1975
Real-time monitoring of critical government services
Note: Service statuses are currently static. In production, these would be updated in real-time by polling official status pages and performing health checks every 60 seconds.
Major disruptions and outages since 1975
Medicare's payment systems experienced widespread outages affecting GP clinics and pharmacies across Australia.
Major outage affecting myGov portal, preventing access to Centrelink, Medicare, and ATO services for millions of Australians.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) census website crashed on census night due to DDoS attacks and infrastructure issues, preventing millions from completing the census online.
The Governor-General dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam after the Opposition-controlled Senate blocked supply (budget bills). While this created a constitutional crisis, essential government services continued to operate. The crisis was resolved when caretaker PM Malcolm Fraser was appointed and elections were called.
In some countries like the United States, when Congress fails to pass funding legislation, the federal government can enter a "shutdown" where non-essential services cease operation. Federal employees may be furloughed, and many government functions halt until funding is restored.
Australia operates under a Westminster parliamentary system. Unlike the US system, the Australian government cannot experience a shutdown in the same way. If the government loses the confidence of Parliament or cannot pass supply (budget) bills, it typically triggers either a change of government or a general election, but essential government services continue to operate.
The only major supply crisis in Australian history occurred in 1975 when the Opposition-controlled Senate blocked supply bills. This led to Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissing Prime Minister Gough Whitlam on November 11, 1975. Malcolm Fraser was appointed as caretaker Prime Minister, supply was passed, and elections were held. While this created a constitutional crisis, essential government services continued to operate throughout.
While Australia hasn't experienced government shutdowns, various government services have experienced technical outages over the years (myGov, Census, Medicare, etc.). These are tracked separately from political/constitutional disruptions and are shown in yellow on the timeline above.
This site is inspired by usa-status.com and serves as an educational comparison of different governmental systems.
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