Politics of Australia

The politics of Australia take place within the framework of parliamentary democracy. The government of Australia is a federation, and Australians elect state and territory legislatures as well as a bicameral Parliament of Australia. The Federal Parliament operates according to the Westminster System of government, though the fact that it has an elected Senate (like the United States) rather than a House of Lords has led to Australia's federal parliamentary system being described as the "Washminster" system. (See Main article: Government of Australia).

Political parties

Three political parties dominate Australian politics. Of these, two govern together in a Coalition:

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• The Liberal Party is a party of the centre-right which broadly represents business, the suburban middle classes and many rural people.
• Its junior coalition partner is the National Party of Australia, formerly the Country Party and now known for electoral purposes as "The Nationals", a conservative party which represents rural interests.
• The Australian Labor Party (ALP) is a social democratic party partly founded by the trade union movement and broadly represents the urban working class, although it increasingly has a base of middle class support.

Minor parties include:

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• The Australian Democrats, a party of middle-class centrists
• The Australian Greens, a left-wing and environmentalist party
• One Nation, a populist anti-immigration party
• The Family First Party and the Christian Democratic Party, parties appealing to conservative Christians.

The proportional representation system allows these parties to win seats in the Australian Senate and in the state upper houses, 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 the 2004 general election).

Related Topics:
Australian Senate - 2002 - By-election - 2004 general election

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The Liberal/National coalition came to power in the March 1996 election, ending 13 years of Labor government and electing John Howard as Prime Minister. He was subsequently 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 has 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 secure the passage of legislation.

Related Topics:
1996 - John Howard - 1998 - 2001 - 2004 - 2004 election - 2005

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Since its election, Howard's conservative coalition has moved to reduce the government's fiscal 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 of government-owned enterprises that began with the Hawke Labor government. The government's most sweeping change has been the introduction of a goods and services tax. The re-elected Howard government is expected to use its Senate majority to accelerate the pace of change in accordance with its free-market ideology.

Related Topics:
Organised labour - Workplace-based collective bargaining - Hawke - Goods and services tax

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The Howard government reversed the foreign policy of its predecessor, placing renewed emphasis on relations with Australia's traditional allies, the United States and Britain and downgrading support for the United Nations in favour of bilateralism. 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.

Related Topics:
United States - Britain - United Nations - China - Japan - Indonesia - East Timor - Papua New Guinea - Solomon Islands - Fiji - Nauru

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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.

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