however, the hutt river province argues that it is an independent entity within the australian legal system and the commonwealth has no right to dispute the claimed de facto legality it was given in error by the governor general's office, and its own failure to respond to the claim. to overturn this de facto recognition, the west australian governor general's office would have to submit the secession to arbitration, something which the hutt river province claims is not done due to legal uncertainty related to the fact that western australia in its entirety was never officially proclaimed as british territory.