Australia

General information: The Commonwealth of Australia comprises the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Area: Around 7.7 million square kilometres.

Population: 25.6 million (2020), most of whom are the descendants of settlers from Britain and Ireland, as well as immigrants from other countries. Indigenous Australians number about 700,000. Australia’s urban population accounts for over 90 percent of the total.

Capital: Canberra (population 418,000). Other large cities are Sydney (5 million), Melbourne (4.9 million), Brisbane (2.4 million), Perth (2 million), Adelaide (1.31 million), Hobart (247,000) and Darwin (158,000).

Political system: Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The head of state, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, who is represented in Australia by Governor-General (since July 2019, this post has been held by General the Honourable David Hurley).

Administrative divisions: Australia has six states: New South Wales (NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS), Victoria (VIC) and Western Australia (WA), and two major mainland territories: the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT). Each state and major mainland territory has its own parliament and government.

Supreme legislative authority: The bicameral Federal Parliament consists of two houses: Senate and House of Representatives. The latter has the key law-making power; its 151 members are elected for three years by universal, secret ballot). The current Speaker of the House of Representatives is the Hon. Tony Smith. The upper house, Senate, comprises 76 Senators who normally serve fixed six-year terms, unless the Senate is dissolved earlier in a double dissolution. Following a double dissolution half the state senators serve slightly less than three years, with the rest serving three years longer. The current President of the Senate is the Hon. Scott Ryan.

Executive authority: The Australian Cabinet is formed by the parliamentary majority party or coalition. The current Cabinet consists of Prime Minister Scott Morrison (since August 2018), Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack, Minister of Foreign Affairs Marise Payne, Minister for Defence Peter Dutton, and Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Dan Tehan.

Main political parties: The Liberal Party (led by Scott Morrison), the Australian Labour Party (Anthony Albanese) and the National Party of Australia (Michael McCormack). A number of minority parties represented in parliament include the Australian Greens, the Centre Alliance, Katter’s Australian Party, etc.

Religion: Christians (Protestant, Catholic, etc.) make up over 70 percent of the Australian population.

Official language: English.

National  holidays: Australia Day is marked on January 26, when the first European settlement was established in Australia in 1788.

Other national holidays are New Year’s Day (January 1), Easter (four days in March or April), Anzac[1] Day (major military commemoration held on April 25), Queen’s Birthday (celebrated on the second Monday in June; in Western Australia it is celebrated on the last Monday in September), Christmas Day (December 25) and Boxing Day (December 26).

Currency: Australian Dollar (AUD, currently worth some $0.75).

Armed Forces: The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is a contractual force that numbers some 58,000 personnel, including about 17,000 reservists. Australia’s defence budget for 2020-2021 was approved at $32,5 billion. The current Chief of the Defence Force (CDF) is General Angus Campbell.

History: It is assumed that the Aboriginal people migrated to Australia from Southeast Asia between 42,000 and 48,000 years ago.

In 1606, Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon landed in north-western Australia, which was later named New Holland. In 1770, British navigator James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The loss of American colonies led to the establishment of a new penal colony in Australia. On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip established a camp at Port Jackson (subsequently renamed Sydney) in New South Wales. Between 1855 and 1890, six British colonies were granted the right to self-government as dominions of the British Empire.

On January 1, 1901, the former colonies formed an independent federative state, the Commonwealth of Australia (a dominion of the British Empire). The Federal Capital Territory (later renamed the Australian Capital Territory) was formed in 1911 as the location for the future federal capital of Canberra (Melbourne was the temporary seat of government from 1901 to 1927).

Australia joined World War I on the side of the Entente.

In accordance with the Statute of Westminster, which was adopted in Britain in 1931 and approved in Australia in 1942, Australia became fully independent of Britain.

Australia entered WWII on the side of Britain. Following the attack on Pearl Harbour, Australia also declared war on Japan.

WWII strengthened ties between Australia and the United States. They formalised their relations by signing the Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS Treaty) in 1951.

After WWII Australia encouraged immigration from mainland Europe. Since the 1970s, immigration from the developing countries was also promoted, which ultimately made Australia a multicultural society.

The Australian government is encouraging stronger ties with Asian-Pacific countries and sees the country’s future as an integral part of the region.

Economy: Australia has the world’s 13th highest GDP ($1,32 trillion as of 2020). GDP by sector: services 71 percent, mining 20 percent, manufacturing 7 percent, and agriculture 2 percent. Inflation as of 2020 was 0,75 percent, unemployment 6.6 percent, refinancing rate 0.1 percent and sovereign debt over $500 billion.

The mining, agriculture and manufacturing industries hold the central place in Australia’s economy. Mining is based on a variety of mineral resources, such as coal, gas, uranium and iron ores, polymetals, bauxites, lead, copper, precious metals and diamonds.

Australia’s agriculture is focused on cattle breeding. Australia is the world’s largest producer and provider of quality wool and a leading exporter of meat and dairy products, wheat and sugar.

Machine building (in particular transport machine building), the food and chemical industries and ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy feature prominently.

Australia’s foreign trade, including services, was estimated at $597 billion in FY 2019-2020. Exports amounted to $378 billion and imports to $219 billion. Australia mostly exports mining and agricultural products. Its imports are dominated by oil and petrochemicals, machinery, equipment and vehicles, consumer goods, chemical products and medicines.

Foreign direct investment in the country (as of 2019) was estimated at $3 trillion. Foreign investors mostly finance the country’s services, real estate and mining.

Domestic policy: Australia’s political system is based on competition between the Labour Party and the Coalition of the Liberal and National parties, which replace each other as parliamentary majority parties with the right to form a government. The Coalition, led by Liberal Party leader Scott Morrison, won the latest general elections on May 18, 2019.

Foreign policy: The United States is a long-time foreign policy ally of Australia, which supports Washington’s main international initiatives. Australia joined the United States in many military conflicts, including on the Korean Peninsula and in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. The Coalition government is strengthening the military and political alliance with the United States and ties with Japan and South Korea and is promoting cooperation with Indo-Pacific countries, primarily China, Indonesia and India. Working at the UN and G20 is among Australia’s foreign policy priorities. Australia believes that its zone of responsibility incudes the developing countries of the South Pacific, to which it provides considerable assistance.

Research: Australia has a network of research centres, many of which are financed by the government. The largest such centres are the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Monash University (Melbourne). There are many Nobel Prize winners in the Australian research community. In particular, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Sir Howard Walter Florey (1945), Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1960), Sir John Carew Eccles (1963), Peter C. Doherty (1996), Barry James Marshall and Robin Warren (2005). Other Australian Nobel Prize laureates are John Warcup Cornforth (Chemistry, 1975), as well as Sir William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg (Physics, 1915).

Culture: The film industry, theatre and ballet are developing rapidly. There are many museums and art galleries. International cultural festivals are regularly held in Australia’s largest cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Canberra. Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Geoffrey Rush and Cate Blanchett are among the world’s biggest film stars. Writers Henry Lawson and Patrick White (Nobel Prize in Literature 1973) and artist George W. Lambert are known internationally.

Education: School attendance is compulsory for children aged between 6 and 15. There are some 40 universities and four institutes.

Media: There are over 500 print media outlets, some 700 state, private and public radio stations and over 100 television networks.

[1]ANZAC is the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, which took part in the Battle of Gallipoli during WWI.