What was claimed
Governor-General Sam Mostyn said "dismiss the government" in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
Our verdict
False. The quote has been fabricated by foreign-run disinformation pages.
AAP FACTCHECK - Australia’s governor-general has not called for the government to be dismissed, despite disinformation circulating that the nation is mired in a constitutional crisis.
Foreign-run social media accounts are falsely claiming that Sam Mostyn said “dismiss the government” in the wake of the 2025 Bondi Beach terror attack.
But there is no record of Ms Mostyn saying that.
A Facebook page called Aussie Vibes claimed in a September 29 post that the governor-general was taking the “constitutional ‘nuclear option’” that could “rewrite Australian history”.
Meta's page transparency data shows the page is run by users based in Vietnam.
“In a television interview that has sent Anthony Albanese into a frantic, behind-the-scenes panic, Governor-General Sam Mostyn broke the silence of her office to reveal a truth so devastating it has paralysed the Labor Party,” the post reads.
“With the nation’s soul at a breaking point, the cry for the dissolution of Parliament is no longer a whisper—it’s a roar.”
The post features a composite image of Ms Mostyn and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
A caption overlaid on the image quotes her as saying, "Dismiss the government!"
A comment under the post encourages users to click through to a website that expands on the false claims.
Several other foreign-run disinformation pages have made the same false claim, with some receiving tens of thousands of views.
The quote attributed to Ms Mostyn is fabricated and there are no credible reports of her saying "dismiss the government".
Conversely, when the governor-general was asked after the Bondi shooting about her constitutional powers to dismiss the government, she said it was up to voters to decide who was in power in Australia, not her.
"There are many, many people who are calling out to me, yelling at me.... telling me that I should sack governments, that I should have sacked governments before,” she said during a December 2025 interview with Sky News Australia, the channel now known as News24 (timestamp four minutes 38 seconds).
“I guess it's an important civics lesson just to remind people that that is not one of my powers in these moments," she said.
“There are matters before governments and before politicians that are dealt with in our responsible and representative government, our system of government, our democracy, which is the envy of the world, where the power of who is in office in the states and territories and our local governments and at the Commonwealth level are held by the people”.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
