From: John Beckett 

"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in
message news::
> In other words the constitution is being followed and this isn't a problem

In 1975 in Australia, something similar to this issue arose (although the
vacancy wasn't caused by illness). The State government leader  was
supposed to appoint a replacement senator following certain conventions,
but he found a way to subvert the procedure, and arrange things as he
wanted. The affair eventually led to the dismissal of the Federal
government.

From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh_Bjelke-Petersen

"The convention in filling Senate vacancies was that the State
government would automatically accept the nominee of the former Senator's
political party. When Labor Senator Bert Miliner died, Bjelke-Petersen
rejected Labor's nominee to fill the vacancy, Mal Colston, and instead
asked for a short list of three nominees, from which he would pick one.
When the ALP refused to supply such a list, Bjelke-Petersen appointed
Albert Field, an ALP member who was critical of the Whitlam
government."

ALP = Labor = Federal government at that time.

John

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