Australia is a federation of six states (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania) and two territories (Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territory). The head of state is the British monarch, who is represented in Australia by a governor-general [E1] [E2] [F1] [I1] [Es1]. That is why Australia is a Constitutional Monarchy [E1]. The Australian Parliament [Es1] has two chambers which have similar powers. They are called the House of Representatives [E1] and the Senate [E1] and they are elected by all citizens over 18.

The 148 seats in the House of Representatives are divided among the states on a population basis. So 51 come from New South Wales, 14 from Western Australia and only one from the Northern Territory. The Senate, on the other hand, has 12 senators from each state and 2 from each of the territories.

The three powers are separated:

• the Parliament is in charge of the legislative power
• the Governor-General is in charge of the executive power
• a High Court, along with other federal courts, is in charge of the judicial power

Four main political parties are represented in the Australian Parliament: the Australian Labour Party (ALP) [E1] [E2] [F1] [I1] [Es1], supported by the trade union movement; the Liberal Party [E1] [E2] [F1] [I1] [Es1] and the National Party [E1] [F1] [I1] [Es1] of Australia, which are both regarded as conservative; and the Australian Democrats [E1] [I1] which has a strong interest in the environment. The party, or coalition of parties, which has a majority in the House of Representatives forms the government and chooses the Prime Minister and all the ministers. The Federal government is responsible for matters of national interest, while each of the six states has its own government which operates in its area of activity.

Australia is a member of the United Nations and is involved in a wide range of its activities. It also belongs to the Commonwealth.