Australia is part of the Commonwealth of Nations. Originally created by United Kingdom in the 15th century, the initial purpose was to protect economically and military called at that time British Commonwealth. With the increase of the British domination, some other communities with similar purposes were created and the Commonwealth of Nations is one of them. Today, The Commonwealth of Nations has 53 states. This pact facilitates commercial and economical agreements, besides of helps to obtain valuable political and military agreements.

The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional monarchy based on a federal division of powers. The form of government used in Australia is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of government. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia, a role that is distinct from her position as monarch of the other Commonwealth realms. The Queen is represented by the Governor-General at federal level and by the Governors at state level. Although the Constitution gives extensive executive powers to the Governor-General, these are normally exercised only on the advice of the Prime Minister. Even being a monarchy, Australia has its Constitution, following American models.

Australian government hierarchy is divided by:

•    Commonwealth, governed by the Prime Minister: Responsible for country matters such as: defense, trade, international relations and telecommunication.

•    State Government: The State Governor complements Prime Minister’s activities, especially related to education, social matters and respect to the laws.

•    Local Governors (ran by counselors locally elected): Responsible for city activities such as city planning, building relations and trash gathering.


The parliament is based on the Westminster government system. The Australian constitution is the country’s legal system base.  On January 1st 2001, Australia celebrated hundred years of federation.

The Australian economy is stable and diversified. The country is affiliated of an international economic forum called APEC (Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation). This is an economic group who wants to make the Pacific in a free trade area by the unification of Asiatic, American and Oceanic economies.

The fast Australian economy growth is also a result of low inflation that during the 90’s, was in average 2.3% per year. Since then, the country has been maintaining the inflation low. One of the main factors is the high industrial productivity during the last decade.

A recent official bulletin published by the Australian Federal Reserve, which compares United States results with other countries member of the OCDE, shows that the Australian productivity growth index was one of the highest in the last years of the 90’s.

The Australian industry develops activities related to the primary sector, such as food, wine, tobacco production and mineral exploration (coal, bauxite, iron, cooper, gold, silver, uranium, nickel, tungsten, lead, zinc, diamonds and natural gas). The export leaders are: wool, coal and diamonds. The Australian industry also included foodstuff such as meat and wheat.

The tourism segment is the one which employs more, being responsible for more than 500 thousand jobs, what represents about 6.6% of the Australian labor force. The Australian tributary reform (which has started in the year 2000) had reduced the tax burden, generating more work incentives, jobs and had attracted more investments to the country.

The technological and industrial segments have been increasing since the arrival of multinational companies. By that, the Australian government idea is to feed the internal market and generate more work opportunities in order to attend neighboring countries needs. The Australian most important market is the Asiatic.