Australia: An Evaluation of Political, Economic, Ethical

Convicts were o longer transported to Australia in 1868. Continental Australia is made up of five states - Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and West Australia. The country also has three territories - Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory - as well as external territories - the Australian Antarctic Territory, Norfolk Island, Christmas Island and the Coco's (Keeling) Islands ("Australia: Introduction"). Australia is the 6th largest country in the entire world and is almost the size of the continental US ("AUSTRALIA").

Australia really is unique from the rest of the world room their political parties, their mixed economy, and their legal system to their religion, culture, and social structure. I Australia: An Evaluation of Political, Economic, Ethical and Legal Issues By Strain-Shay The Australian political system is much like that of the United States. Both systems of government follow the idea of indirect democracy and are based on principles of the preservation of minority rights, political equality and majority rule.

Both the US and Australian political systems are federal systems. Both have a parliament composed of House of Representatives and a Senate, a written constitution that defines the powers if the Federal Government, and an independent Judiciary - the Supreme court in the US and the High Court in Australia - that interprets the constitution and acts as a final court of appeals ("Comparing The American And Australian Political Systems"). Some key differences between the US and Australian government is the way in which the nation's leader is elected and how they serve.

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The US is a republic where the President is elected by the people and acts the lead of both the state and government. Australia is a constitutional monarch in which the Head of State is the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently Queen Elizabeth II. The monarch's power is merely symbolic, most power in Australia is exercised through the appointed Governor-General (Darlington). The Governor-General is selected by the Prime Minister ("Comparing the American and Australian Political Systems").

The Australian Prime Minister is elected by the members of the parties that have won a majority of the seats in the House of Representatives. In the US the President is elected directly by the people of the nation and must then appoint non-members of the congress to ministerial roles. Like in the US, there are three major political parties in Australia. The first is the Australian Labor Party. It is Centre-Left and tends to side with workers. It is currently led by Chris Bowen. This party was in government for six years and was defeated in September 2013 during the general election.

The second id the Liberal Party. This party is Centre-Right and tends to side with the interests of the self-employed and business world. It is currently led by Tony Abbott who is now the Prime Minister due to this party's victory at the last general election in September 2013. The third is the National Party that tends to side with rural voters such as farmers and grazers. This party is currently led by Warren Truss (Darlington). The Australian political system has its own take on representative democracy.

While the people of the US vote on a voluntary basis, voting in Australia is required and is penalized by a fine of up to $170 ADD ($132 USED) and typically sees a turnout of more than 90% in both the federal and state elections. Federal elections are not held every four years as in most democracy, instead they are held at least every three years (Darlington). . ECONOMIC SYSTEM Australia has a strong mixed market economy that is prosperous with a high GAP and a low rate of poverty. The free market is one of the first five developed countries of financing, manufacturing and trade.

The most prominent of these is the service industry ("The Australian Economy'). Other contributors to the nation's prosperous economy include natural resources, large scale productions, high technology, industrialization and private enterprises ("The Australian Economy'). Australia is almost split in two halves economically. The eastern part of the nation is here the majority of Australia's financial and service industries operate. It is also home to the Nation's capital city Canberra which is often referred to as the heart of Australia's economic and political policies.

On the other hand, Western Australia sees most of the nation's natural resources such as natural gas, oil, iron ore and gold ("Australian Economy'). But with the price of four of Australia's largest exports - copper, iron ore, coal and gas - reducing by more than half over the past few months the mining boom seems to have reached an end (Lard). But what does that mean for the Australian economy? Opportunity. While the natural resource mining in Australia has undoubtedly contributed to the economic growth over the past decade, there are many more industries in which the economy will continue to soar.

According to the graphic below, Australia saw a total export value of A$318. 5 billion and a total import value of A$328. 7 billion in 2013("Australia and the World"). The top five export markets for Australia in 2013 were China with a value of A$ 101 ,590 million, Japan valued at A$49,352 million, Republic of Korea at A$21,274 million, the United States at A$1 5,533 million, and India at A$11,430 million. Iron ores, coal, natural gas, and gold were all among Australia's top export materials.

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