2 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.

3 Political parties

The Honourable John Howard, MP, Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the Liberal Party

• Significant political parties (and their federal leaders):

Australian Democrats: Senator Andrew Bartlett

Australian Labor Party: Mark Latham

Australian Greens: Senator Bob Brown ¹

Liberal Party of Australia: John Howard

National Party of Australia: John Anderson

One Nation Party: (no clear leader) ²

Family First Party: Andrea Mason

• Formerly significant parties:

Australia Party

Communist Party of Australia

Democratic Labor Party

Protectionist Party

Free Trade Party

Nationalist Party of Australia

United Australia Party

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 logo of the Australian Labor Party 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 governement 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.

3.1 Notes

1. The Australian Greens do not formally have a leader. Brown is the party's senior elected official and is treated by the media and public as its leader.
2. One Nation has largely disintegrated. Senator Len Harris is its only federal parliamentary reprentative, but does not appear to be formally its leader. Founder, Pauline Hanson, herself ran for the federal Senate as an independent candidate in the 2004 election.

4 International organisations

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

5 See also

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

Politics of Australia
Government: Parliament - Federal electoral system - State electoral systems - Electoral divisions
Australian legislative elections: 1993 - 1996 - 1998 - 2001 - 2004 - 2007
Political parties: Democrats | Greens | Labor Party | Progressive Alliance | Country Liberal Party | Family First Party | Liberal Party | National Party | One Nation

Australian politics

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