Australia - an Overview

Australia:

An Overview

Australia is one of the world’s largest countries. It is also the world’s smallest continent. It is the only country-continent in the world. It is an island in the Southeast Pacific, with New Zealand as its immediate neighbor. It is home to over 20 million people (CountryWatch.com, 2008) from over 200 different countries worldwide. It is a federation of six states and two territories. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. The two territories are Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory, which is an enclave within New South Wales (similar to Vatican City in Rome) and contains the federal capital, Canberra.

The history of Australia is characterized by three stages. The first stage is pre-colonial. This is basically a period of aboriginal inhabitance. The Australian aborigines had been there for 40,000 years or so, according to CountryWatch.com (2008). The second stage begins in the 18th century, when Captain James Cook first claimed Australia for Britain (Duly, 2007). This was the beginning of Australia as a British colony, initially as a penal colony where they brought all their criminals. The day that James Cook landed in 1788 (January 26) is still celebrated annually as Australia Day.

The 20th century is the third stage, beginning with the formation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901. This stage is the emergence of Australia as its own country, the union of six colonies. The 20th century proved to be a time of the formation of a national identity and culture, as well as vast social, economic, and political change. The first major event, one that was instrumental in forming the ethnic makeup of the early Commonwealth, was the passing of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901(Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2008). This act limited migration to people of European descent. It would eventually be overturned after the Second World War, but it was a bold first statement by the newly created Commonwealth Parliament.

The other major events that would have the greatest impact on Australia as a nation and a peoples were the two World Wars. It was the World Wars, more so than federation itself, which would come to define and sculpt the Australian national identity (Duly, 2007). While the break from British rule in 1901 formed six autonomous states under a commonwealth, World War I forged the transformation from six states into a self-aware nation, conscious of its new place in the world. It was devastating to Australia, and Australians contributed their fair share to the cause. In fact, April 25 is ANZAC Day in Australia. The ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) landed on this day in 1915 in Gallipoli and fought a heroic battle against Turkish forces.

Between the two World Wars was a time of social and economic instability, similar to the rest of the world. Australia suffered from financial breakdown and depression. When World War II broke out, Australia benefited from the booming wartime economy. This state of elevated production continued after the war was over, much like it did in the United States (Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2008). People began flooding into the country from all over, looking to start anew. The state of affairs continued to improve through the 50s, with major improvements in infrastructure. The 60s continued to improve, with major changes in politics and social agenda. First, the discarding of the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 in 1966 opened Australia to a wider diversity of ethnicities. This included better treatment of the long-neglected aboriginal population. There were also major political changes. The Liberal/National Coalition had been dominating Australian politics for a long time, and now the newly elected Australian Labor Party was in control. The Liberal/National Coalition eventually came back into power, but the Labor Party enacted some enduring political and social reform.

The rest of the 20th century was marked mainly by the changing of dominant political parties. Each party enacted legislation that was sympathetic to their agenda. Now, a brief look at the government structure of Australia.

The system of government in the Commonwealth of Australia is based on a combination of American and British forms of government. It is officially known as a “Constitutional Monarchy.” “вЂ?Constitutional’ because the powers and procedures of the Commonwealth Government are defined by a written constitution and вЂ?Monarchy’ because Australia’s Head of State is Queen Elizabeth II.”, according to the Australian Government on their website, australia.gov.au (2008). Essentially, their form of government is based on the British parliament system. This is a direct result of having been “born” of British colonialism. The vast majority of their government and legal structure has been copied straight from British tradition. Their Head of State is British, but the head of government is the Australian Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is responsible to parliament.

But their constitution also contains elements of American government. For instance, they are a federation, dividing power between the Commonwealth and the States (Hirst, 1998, p. 44). They have a bicameral legislature, composed of a House of Representatives and a Senate which works very similar to their American counterparts. There is a checks and balance system which is more similar to America than to Britain. There are three branches of the Commonwealth Government: executive, legislative, and judicial (Australian Government, 2008).

There are three major parties in Australian politics. They are the Liberal Party, the Labor Party, and the National Party. The National Party is usually aligned with the interests of the Liberal Party, and they usually form a coalition. This makes for a largely two-party system: the Liberal-National Coalition and the Labor Party. This system provides for a more stable government. The Labor Party represents the interests of the worker and the Liberal-National Coalition generally represents the business class. Currently, the Labor Party is in power after 11 years of conservative coalition reign (Duly, 2007). The current Labor Party leader and Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd.

So, the Australian system of government is a neat hybrid of British and American elements. The founders of the Australian constitution basically took the elements that they desired from each system and made one completely their own, unique to Australia.

The education system in Australia is also quite similar to the education system in the United States.