A Stable Democracy

Australia is a politically stable, prosperous and peaceful country. The Commonwealth of Australia, formed in 1901, is a federation of six states and two self-governing territories. There are three tiers of democratically elected government, they are federal, state and local. Australia has full adult suffrage, and voting is compulsory for all tiers of government.

A proven parliamentary system
The parliamentary system is based on the British Westminster model. Federal Parliament, which sits in the national capital Canberra, consists of an upper house called the Senate and a lower house, the House of Representatives. The party with the largest number of members in the House of Representatives forms the Government. The Senate acts mainly as a house of review.

The federal government is headed by the Prime Minister, who must be a member of the lower house. Other ministers can be members of either house. The federal government looks after the national economy, foreign policy and defence, social services, immigration and the postal service. It also collects most of the taxation.

State and territory governments are run on similar lines to the federal one, but the leader of the government is known as the Premier. Queensland does not have an upper house. State governments are mainly responsible for education, health, transport and natural resources. Since they raise most of their revenue from the business community they compete strongly to attract new industry.

The third tier is local government. This controls such functions as urban and country roads, rubbish disposal and building codes.

In recent times, Australia has effectively had a two party system at both federal and state level with the Australian Labor Party and a coalition of the Liberal and National parties competing for power.

There are also important minor parties such as the Australian Democrats. The political parties are not usually involved at local government level.

Spirited constitutional debate
Australia is a monarchy. The United Kingdom's king or queen is also Australia's, and is represented by a Governor-General and state Governors. They are nominated by the respective governments and the nominations are ratified by the monarch. The power these governors exert is mainly ceremonial. There was a much spirited debate about the country becoming a republic, a referendum in late 1999 on this issue voted to keep the current system.

The Australian legal system is independent of politics. The traditional links with Britain have been shed, too. The Commonwealth and the states each have their own judiciaries and police forces.

Travel and relocation throughout the country is unrestricted, and there is no national identity card or similar document. Australians value their freedom and their country very highly, although they are not often outwardly patriotic.

Australia's stability, wealth and outward-looking policies have made it more important in world events than might be suggested by the size of its population. It is part of the Commonwealth of Nations, was a founding member of the United Nations and was instrumental in the founding of APEC.