Australia is a federation and a constitutional monarchy, with a written Constitution governing the relationship between the national government (usually referred to as the Commonwealth) and the states. The powers of the Commonwealth are defined in the constitution, and the residual powers remain with the states unless voluntarily given over to the Commonwealth. (See Australian Constitutional History.)

Australia is an independent nation within the Commonwealth of Nations. Queen Elizabeth II is the sovereign and since 1973 has been officially styled "Queen of Australia." The Queen is represented throughout Australia by a Governor-General, and in each state by a Governor. In the self-governing territories (except the Australian Capital Territory), the Queen is represented by an Administrator.

Contents

1 Government 2 States and Territories 3 Political parties 4 International organisations 5 See also

Government

Main article: Government of Australia

The Australian Parliament is bicameral, consisting of a 76-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. Twelve senators from each state and two from each territory are elected for six-year terms using proportional representation and the single transferable vote (known in Australia as "preferential voting": see Australian electoral system), with half elected every three years.

The members of the House of Representatives are elected by preferential voting from single-member constituencies allocated among the states and territories roughly in proportion to population. In ordinary legislation, the two chambers have coordinate powers, but all proposals for appropriating revenue or imposing taxes must be introduced in the House of Representatives. Under the prevailing Westminster system, the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that wins a majority of the seats in the House of Representatives is named Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are responsible to the Parliament, of which they must be elected members. General elections are held at least once every three years. The Prime Minister has a discretion to advise the Governor-General to call an election for the House of Representatives at any time, but Senate elections can only be held within certain periods prescribed in the Constitution. The last general election was in October 2004.

States and Territories

Each state is headed by a Premier, who is the leader of the party with a majority or a working minority in the lower house of the state legislature. (see Electoral systems of the Australian states and territories). The sovereignty and jurisdiction of the states is guaranteed by the Constitution and cannot be infringed on by the Commonwealth, unless the Australian people decided at a referendum to change the Constutition.

Australia also has three self-governing territories, the Australian Capital Territory (where Canberra is located), the Northern Territory and Norfolk Island, with political systems similar to those of the states, although their legislatures exercise only those powers granted to them by Commonwealth legislation.

At the apex of the court system is the High Court of Australia. It has general appellate jurisdiction over all other federal and state courts and possesses the power of constitutional review.

Political parties

Three political parties dominate the Australian political spectrum: the Liberal Party, a party of the centre-right which broadly represents business, the suburban middle classes and many country people; the National Party of Australia (now known for electoral purposes as "The Nationals"), a conservative party which was set up (as the Country Party) to represent rural interests; and the Australian Labor Party (ALP), a centre-left party founded by the trade unions and broadly representing the urban working class, although it has a base of middle class support as well.

Minor parties include the Australian Democrats, a party of middle-class centrists; the Australian Greens, a radical left wing and environmentalist party; One Nation, a populist anti-immigration party; and the Family First Party, a party appealing to conservative Christians. The proportional representation system allows these parties to win seats in the Senate, but they have usually been unable to win seats in the House of Representatives (the Greens won a House seat at a 2002 by-election, but lost it in 2004).

The Liberal Party/National Party coalition came to power in the March 1996 election, ending 13 years of ALP government and electing John Howard as Prime Minister. Re-elected in October 1998, November 2001 and October 2004, the coalition now holds a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, the Liberal/National coalition was in a minority until the 2004 election, but from July 2005 it will have a working majority there. Until 2004, lacking a majority in the Senate, the Liberal/National coalition relied on negotiations with the smaller parties and independents to enact legislation.

Since its election Howard's conservative coalition has moved to reduce Australia's government deficit and the influence of organised labour, placing more emphasis on workplace-based collective bargaining for wages. The Howard government also accelerated the pace of privatisation, beginning with the government-owned telecommunications corporation, Telstra. The government's most sweeping change has been the introduction of a goods and services tax. The re-elected Howard government can be expected to use its Senate majority to accelerate the pace of change in accordance with its free-market ideology.

The Howard government reversed the foreign policy of its ALP predecessor, placing renewed emphasis on relations with Australia's traditional allies, the United States and Britain and downgrading support for the United Nations. Both major parties support maintaining good relations with regional powers such as China, Japan and Indonesia, although issues such as the independence of East Timor have sometimes made this difficult. Australia has become increasingly involved in the internal difficulties of its smaller neighbours, such as Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Nauru.

The list of political parties in Australia comprises the names and federal leaders of significant political parties as well as the names of other parties, including formerly significant parties.

International organisations

Major international organisations: ANZUS, APEC, International Criminal Court, ILO, IMF, OECD, United Nations and all its specialist agencies, World Trade Organisation

See also

• List of Australian politicians
• Politics of Australia and Canada compared