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Commonwealth of Australia
Sovereign: Queen Elizabeth II (1952)

Governor-General: Michael Jeffery (2003)

Prime Minister: Kevin Rudd (2007)

Current government officials
Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments
Date of Information: 12/4/2007



Governor General Philip Michael JEFFERY, Maj. Gen. (Ret.)
Prime Minister Kevin RUDD
Dep. Prime Min. Julia GILLARD
Min. for Aging Justine ELLIOTT
Min. for Agriculture, Fisheries, & Forestry Tony BURKE
Min. for Broadband, Communications, & the Digital Economy Stephen CONROY
Min. for Climate Change & Water Penny WONG
Min. for Competition Policy & Consumer Affairs Chris BOWEN
Min. for Defense Joel FITZGIBBON
Min. for Defense Science & Personnel Warren SNOWDON
Min. for Education Julia GILLARD
Min. for Employment & Workplace Relations Julia GILLARD
Min. for Employment Participation Brendan O'CONNOR
Min. for the Environment, Heritage, & the Arts Peter GARRETT
Min. for Families, Housing, Community Services, & Indigenous Affairs Jenny MACKLIN
Min. for Finance & Deregulation Lindsay TANNER
Min. for Foreign Affairs Stephen SMITH
Min. for Health & Aging Nicola ROXON
Min. for Housing Tanya PLIBERSEK
Min. for Human Services Joe LUDWIG
Min. for Immigration & Citizenship Chris EVANS
Min. for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, & Local Govt. Anthony ALBANESE
Min. for Innovation, Industry, Science, & Research Kim CARR
Min. for Resources & Energy Martin FERGUSON
Min. for Small Business, Independent Contractors, & the Service Economy Craig EMERSON
Min. for Social Inclusion Julia GILLARD
Min. for Sport Kate ELLIS
Min. for the Status of Women Tanya PLIBERSEK
Min. for Superannuation & Corporate Law Nick SHERRY
Min. for Tourism Martin FERGUSON
Min. for Trade Simon CREAN
Min. for Veterans' Affairs Alan GRIFFIN
Min. for Youth Kate ELLIS
Treasurer Wayne SWAN
Special Min. of State John FAULKNER
Attorney General Robert McCLELLAND
Governor, Reserve Bank Glenn STEVENS
Ambassador to the US Dennis RICHARDSON
Permanent Representative to the UN, New York Robert HILL

Land area: 2,941,283 sq mi (7,617,931 sq km); total area: 2,967,893 sq mi (7,686,850 sq km)

Population (2008 est.): 20,600,856 (growth rate: 0.8%); birth rate: 11.9/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.5/1000; life expectancy: 80.7; density per sq mi: 7

Capital (2003 est.): Canberra, 327,700

Largest cities: Sydney, 4,250,100; Melbourne, 3,610,800; Brisbane, 1,545,700; Perth, 1,375,200; Adelaide, 1,087,600

Monetary unit: Australian dollar

Languages: English 79%, native and other languages

Ethnicity/race: Caucasian 92%, Asian 7%, aboriginal and other 1%

Religions: Roman Catholic 26%, Anglican 21%, other Christian 21%, Buddhist 2%, Islam 2%, other 1%, none 15% (2001)

National Holiday: Australia Day, January 26

Literacy rate: 99%% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $766.8 billion; per capita $37,500. Real growth rate: 4%. Inflation: 3%. Unemployment: 4.4%. Arable land: 6.15%. Agriculture: wheat, barley, sugarcane, fruits; cattle, sheep, poultry. Labor force: 10.9 million; agriculture 3.6%, industry 21.2%, services 75.2% (2007 est.). Industries: mining, industrial and transportation equipment, food processing, chemicals, steel. Natural resources: bauxite, coal, iron ore, copper, tin, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, mineral sands, lead, zinc, diamonds, natural gas, petroleum. Exports: $139.4 billion (2007 est.): coal, gold, meat, wool, alumina, iron ore, wheat, machinery and transport equipment. Imports: $152.7 billion (2007 est.): machinery and transport equipment, computers and office machines, telecommunication equipment and parts; crude oil and petroleum products. Major trading partners: China, U.S., Japan, Singapore, Germany (2006).

Member of Commonwealth of Nations

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 9.94 million (2006); mobile cellular: 19.76 million (2006). Radio broadcast stations: AM 262, FM 345, shortwave 1 (1998). Television broadcast stations: 104 (1997). Internet hosts: 9.458 million (2007). Internet users: 15.3 million (2006).

Transportation: Railways: total: 38,550 km (2006). Highways: total: 810,641 km; paved: 336,962 km; unpaved: 473,679 km (2004). Waterways: 2,000 km (mainly used for recreation on Murray and Murray-Darling river systems) (2006). Ports and harbors: Brisbane, Dampier, Fremantle, Gladstone, Hay Point, Melbourne, Newcastle, Port Hedland, Port Kembla, Port Walcott, Sydney. Airports: 461 (2007).

International disputes: Timor-Leste and Australia agreed in 2005 to defer the disputed portion of the boundary for fifty years and to split hydrocarbon revenues evenly outside the Joint Petroleum Development Area covered by the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty; East Timor dispute hampers creation of a revised maritime boundary with Indonesia in the Timor Sea; Indonesian groups challenge Australia's claim to Ashmore and Cartier Islands; Australia closed parts of the Ashmore and Cartier Reserve to Indonesian traditional fishing and placed restrictions on certain catch; regional states continue to express concern over Australia's 2004 declaration of a 1,000-nautical mile-wide maritime identification zone; Australia asserts land and maritime claims to Antarctica (see Antarctica); in 2004 Australia submitted its claims to UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) to extend its continental margins covering over 3.37 million square kilometers or roughly thirty percent of its claimed exclusive economic zone; since 2003, Australian Defense Force leads the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) to maintain civil and political order and reinforce regional security.

Geography
The continent of Australia, with the island state of Tasmania, is approximately equal in area to the United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii). Mountain ranges run from north to south along the east coast, reaching their highest point in Mount Kosciusko (7,308 ft; 2,228 m). The western half of the continent is occupied by a desert plateau that rises into barren, rolling hills near the west coast. The Great Barrier Reef, extending about 1,245 mi (2,000 km), lies along the northeast coast. The island of Tasmania (26,178 sq mi; 67,800 sq km) is off the southeast coast.

Government
Democracy. Symbolic executive power is vested in the British monarch, who is represented throughout Australia by the governor-general.

History
The first inhabitants of Australia were the Aborigines, who migrated there at least 40,000 years ago from Southeast Asia. There may have been between a half million to a full million Aborigines at the time of European settlement; today about 350,000 live in Australia.

Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish ships sighted Australia in the 17th century; the Dutch landed at the Gulf of Carpentaria in 1606. In 1616 the territory became known as New Holland. The British arrived in 1688, but it was not until Captain James Cook's voyage in 1770 that Great Britain claimed possession of the vast island, calling it New South Wales. A British penal colony was set up at Port Jackson (what is now Sydney) in 1788, and about 161,000 transported English convicts were settled there until the system was suspended in 1839.

Free settlers and former prisoners established six colonies: New South Wales (1786), Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) (1825), Western Australia (1829), South Australia (1834), Victoria (1851), and Queensland (1859). Various gold rushes attracted settlers, as did the mining of other minerals. Sheep farming and grain soon grew into important economic enterprises. The six colonies became states and in 1901 federated into the Commonwealth of Australia with a constitution that incorporated British parliamentary and U.S. federal traditions. Australia became known for its liberal legislation: free compulsory education, protected trade unionism with industrial conciliation and arbitration, the secret ballot, women's suffrage, maternity allowances, and sickness and old-age pensions.

Australia fought alongside Britain in World War I, notably with the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) in the Dardanelles campaign (1915). Participation in World War II brought Australia closer to the United States. Parliamentary power in the second half of the 20th century shifted between three political parties: the Australian Labour Party, the Liberal Party, and the National Party. Australia relaxed its discriminatory immigration laws in the 1960s and 1970s, which favored Northern Europeans. Thereafter, about 40% of its immigrants came from Asia, diversifying a population that was predominantly of English and Irish heritage. An Aboriginal movement grew in the 1960s that gained full citizenship and improved education for the country's poorest socioeconomic group.

In March 1996 the opposition Liberal Party–National Party coalition easily won the national elections, removing the Labour Party after 13 years in power. Pressure from the new, conservative One Nation Party threatened to reduce the gains made by Aborigines and to limit immigration.

In Sept. 1999, Australia led the international peacekeeping force sent to restore order in East Timor after pro-Indonesian militias began massacring civilians to thwart East Timor's referendum on independence.

In Nov. 1999, Australia's 11.6 million voters rejected a referendum that would have ended Australia's formal allegiance to the British Crown. In 2000, Prime Minister Howard instituted a new tax system, lowering income and corporate taxes, and adding sales taxes on goods and services.

John Howard won a third term in Nov. 2001, primarily as the result of his tough policy against illegal immigration. This policy has also brought him considerable criticism: refugees attempting to enter Australia—most of them from Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq and numbering about 5,000 annually—have been imprisoned in bleak detention camps and subjected to a lengthy immigration process. Asylum-seekers have staged riots and hunger strikes. Howard has also dealt with refugees through the “Pacific solution,” which reroutes boat people from Australian shores to camps in Papua New Guinea and Nauru. In 2004, however, the government began easing its policies on immigration.

Prime Minister Howard sent 2,000 Australian troops to fight alongside American and British troops in the 2003 Iraq war, despite strong opposition among Australians.

In July 2003, Australia successfully restored order to the Solomon Islands, which had descended into lawlessness during a brutal civil war.

Australia has been the victim of two significant terrorist attacks in recent years: the 2002 Bali, Indonesia, bombings by a group with ties to al-Qaeda in which 202 died, many of whom were Australian, and the 2004 attack on the Australian embassy in Indonesia, which killed ten.

In Oct. 2004, Howard won a fourth term as prime minister. When rival security forces in East Timor began fighting each other in 2006, Australia sent 3,000 peacekeeping troops to stem the violence. Howard was defeated by the Labor Party's Kevin Rudd in elections in November 2007. Rudd campaigned on a platform for change, and promised to focus on the environment, education, and healthcare. Observers predicted Rudd would maintain a close relationship with the United States. The military began withdrawing Australia’s 550 troops from Iraq in June 2008, following through on a promise made by Rudd.

by infoplease.com

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