THE GEOGRAPHY (Foreign Office UK)
Area: 7,682m sq km (4,774 sq mi)
Population : 19m
Capital City: Canberra
People: 99% of the population are of
European or Asian descent
Languages: Mainly English with some
other European, indigenous and Asian
languages
Religion(s): Predominantly Christian
with Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim
Currency: Australian Dollar (A$)
Major Political Parties: There are 6
registered parties, they are the:
Liberal Party, National Party,
Australian Labour Party (ALP),
Australian Democrats, One Nation
Party, Green Party
Government: The Australian
Constitution of 1901 established a
federal system of government. Under
this system, powers are distributed
between a federal government (the
Commonwealth) and the six States
(three Territories - the Australian
Capital Territory, the Northern
Territory, and Norfolk Island have
self-government arrangements). The
Parliament is at the very heart of the
Commonwealth government. The
Parliament consists of The Queen
(represented by the
Governor-General) and two Houses,
the Senate and the House of
Representatives. These three elements
make Australia a constitutional
monarchy, a federation and a
parliamentary democracy.
Head of State: Her Majesty, Queen
Elizabeth II
Prime Minister: The Hon John Howard
MP (Leader Liberal/National Coalition)
Foreign Minister: The Hon Alexander
Downer MP
Membership of international
groups/organisations: The United
Nations (UN), the Commonwealth, the
World Trade Organisation (WTO), the
Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation
(APEC), Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD),
the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum
(ARF), United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organisation
(UNESCO), Pacific Islands Forum
(PIF), Pacific Community (SPC), South
Pacific Regional Environment
Programme (SPREP).
GEOGRAPHY
Australia occupies the whole of the
island continent of the same name and
lies between the Indian and Pacific
Oceans. Although the country's land
mass is half as big again as that of
Europe, most of Australia is empty.
The population is centred
predominantly in the South Eastern
coastal cities of Sydney, Brisbane,
Melbourne and Adelaide while the
interior of the country - the Outback
- is comprised of sparsely populated
semi-desert and tropical wetlands.
THE HISTORY (Foreign Office UK)
In 1768 the British Admiralty instructed
Captain James Cook to begin a search
for the 'Great South Island' first
reached by Dutch sailors in the early
17th century. The crew of The
Endeavour subsequently landed at
Botany Bay and claimed the Island for
the British. King George III decided that
Botany Bay should become the
destination for British convicts under
sentence of transportation and in
January 1788 the first fleet sailed
under the command of Captain Arthur
Phillip. In total, more than 168,000
convicts were transported but the
discovery of gold in the 1850s also
began to attract free settlers to the
Island. Exploration and expansion
followed from the growth in population
and by the 1890s, calls for the colonies
of New South Wales, Western
Australia, Van Diemen's Land (now
Tasmania) and Port Phillip (Now
Victoria) to federate had became
increasingly strong. Australia became a
nation on 1 January 1901.
BBC Monitoring Timeline
POLITICS
The Federal Coalition of the Liberal and
National parties (both conservative)
was returned for a third term, with an
increased majority, following the
Federal Election on 10 November 2001.
For most of 2000, the Coalition had
been trailing the Labour Party in
opinion polls but Prime Minister
Howard's strong support of the
military campaign in Afghanistan and
the fight against international
terrorism, and his policies on asylum
seekers, enabled him to turn round
public opinion among the Australian
electorate. His third term agenda will
focus on defence, science and
innovation, aged care, further
industrial relations and welfare
reform.
State/Territories
The Australian Labour Party now holds
five of the six States, the Northern
Territory and the Australian Capital
Territory. Only South Australia
remains in Coalition hands, and a State
election is due there before April 2002.
The South Australia Premier John
Olsen resigned recently after questions
were raised about inducements
offered during his term of office to
persuade the company Motorola to set
up in the State.
Federal Government Policies
Domestic
The government claims some
significant achievements since first
winning power in 1996. It turned an
inherited A$10 billion budget deficit to
surplus by 1998. It introduced
much-needed industrial relations
reform in 1996 and further financial
services de-regulation - important
steps towards enhancing Australia's
international competitiveness. It has
privatised 49% of the
telecommunications firm, Telstra, and
most of Australia's major airports. It
secured passage of its Native Title
Amendment Act: aiming to provide a
framework for resolving the
competing claims of pastoralists and
miners with those of the original
indigenous inhabitants of the land. Most
of these pieces of legislation were
secured through negotiation (and
compromise) with either the Australian
Democrats or the Independent
Senators. And, in June 1999, the
government reached a compromise
with the Australian Democrats to
secure passage of its tax reform
legislation. The Prime Minister
conceded ground on the most
unpopular element of the package, the
Goods and Services Tax (GST),
agreeing to exempt basic foods from
the tax.
Prime Minister Howard has signalled
his intention to continue his reforming
agenda during his third term. He has
promised income tax cuts - when
budget surpluses allow - to be
targeted at families; further industrial
relations reform; a six month extension
to the first-time home buyers' grant;
an increased number of
apprenticeships, and further sound
economic management.
Indigenous Issues
The treatment of the indigenous
Aboriginal community (1.6% of the
population) has taxed successive
Australian governments. They were
only recognised by the Australian
Constitution after 1967 and only fully
became a part of Australian society in
1975. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975
prohibited discrimination on grounds of
race, colour, descent, or national or
ethnic origin. There is now a wide
range of government programmes
seeking to improve aspects of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
life. The Federal government has spent
billions of dollars on such programmes.
Between 1910 and 1970 there was a
government backed scheme to remove
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
children from their parents and place
them with white families or
orphanages. This became known as the
'stolen generation'. An investigation by
the Australian Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission 1995-97
concluded, that the policy of child
removal 'aimed to eliminate indigenous
cultures as distinct entities' and, hence,
constituted 'genocide' as defined by the
United Nations Convention on the
Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide. It recommended an
apology and the payment of
compensation to those affected. In
response, the government announced,
in December 1997, a series of
programmes to improve Aboriginal
health and welfare, and to reunite
families.
On Native Title, it had long been
accepted that Australian land was not
owned before British colonisation
(terra nullius): the original Aboriginal
inhabitants had, therefore, no native
title to the land they occupied.
Decisions by the High Court in 1993
(Mabo) and 1996 (Wik) established that
native title could exist and was not
necessarily extinguished by a pastoral
leasehold. It fell to the present
government to find a legislative
framework that would resolve the
competing claims of pastoralists and
miners on one side with the rights of
indigenous inhabitants on the other. The
result was the Native Title Amendment
Act 1997. The Act confirms that native
title can co-exist with pastoral leases,
to the extent that it is consistent with
those leases. It provides a mechanism
for consultation and agreement where
title is disputed, and tightens the
criteria for determining indigenous
claimants: eg requiring an existing
association with the land. Neither side
has been satisfied and court challenges
are likely, although there is a steadily
growing number of negotiated
settlements.
The Northern Territory (NT) and
Western Australia's mandatory
sentencing laws, which involve
mandatory jail sentences for a third
offence, have come under international
and national scrutiny. The Prime
Minister did not invoke Federal powers
to force the NT/WA to amend their
laws but did agree an A$20m package
to expand the diversionary
programmes for young offenders. The
NT government also agreed to raise
the age when mandatory sentencing
would apply for first time offenders,
from 17 to 18, and give the police
greater discretion when dealing with
younger offenders. The prime
aboriginal body - the Aborigine and
Torres Strait Islander Commission
continues to raise the issue in the
international arena.
Republic Debate
In a constitutional referendum held on
6 November 1999, Australia voted to
remain a constitutional monarchy (55%
to 45%). Voters were offered a choice
between the status quo and the
Republican model approved by the 1998
Constitutional Convention: a President
appointed by a two-thirds majority in
Parliament. Debate focused principally
on the Republican model rather than on
the monarchy. Republicans wanting a
directly elected president formed an
unlikely coalition with monarchists to
defeat the referendum. Despite the
result, there is extensive republican
sentiment in Australia. The outgoing
Labour Opposition Leader, Kim Beazley,
had pledged to deliver a Republic by
2010 if Labour had won the recent
Federal Election. The Australian
Republican Movement, under a new
Chairman, Greg Barns, have released a
new discussion paper on proposed
Republican models, and will hold a
conference of members next year to
debate the paper. Australian
constitutional issues are for the
Australian people to decide.
THE ECONOMY (Foreign Office UK)
Basic Economic Facts
GDP: US$ 354.5 (2001)
GDP per head: US$ 18153.5 (2001)
Annual Growth: 2.3% (2001)
Inflation: 4.2% (2001)
Major Industries: Creative and Media;
Energy, Metals and Minerals;
Engineering; Food; Healthcare; IT and
Electronics; Oil and Gas, Refining and
Petrochemicals; Rail
Major Trading Partners: Japan, United
States, Korea, New Zealand, United
Kingdom, China, Singapore and Hong
Kong
Exchange Rate: £1=AUS$2.77
Trade Partners UK Country Profile:
Australia
Overview
After a decade of growth (averaging
3.8% per annum) the Australian
economy is performing well in the face
of the global downturn. GDP growth
for 2001 was 2.5%. The rise in house
building and strong domestic retail
sales has underpinned the economy’s
strength. The Australian dollar parity
(a loss of a third of its value against
the US dollar and the pound between
1997 and 2000) helped to maintain a
competitive export environment. The
Reserve Bank of Australia raised its
interest rate a quarter of a percentage
point to 4.5 in May 2002, the first
increase since August 2000.
Unemployment for 2001 has been at
6.7%. Overall, prospects for the
economy are good.
In its first term of office (1996-98)
the government turned around an
underlying deficit of A$10Bn to a small
budget surplus in 1998-99. This was
achieved through cuts in expenditure
and non-indexation of tax brackets.
The government has implemented a
raft of tax reform measures, most
notably the introduction of a VAT-style
GST, with associated personal tax cuts
and reform of the business tax system
including a halving of the rate of Capital
gains Tax. These have reduced the
government's surplus, also under
strain from the cost of a number of
politically popular tax cuts, notably to
petrol and beer excise. The recent
budget forecast modest surpluses for
the next few years. However, Federal
government debt is less than 10% of
GDP: very small by OECD standards.
In the last 15 months, official interest
rates have fallen to 4.5%; reversing the
increases of the previous 12 months.
Reduced growth might have been
expected to lead to a rise in
unemployment. Despite the global
downturn, consumer spending in
Australia has remained strong.
The Reserve Bank has maintained its
commitment to keeping underlying
inflation within a range of 2-3% on
average over the course of the
business cycle. The year to June 2001
saw a 6.0% increase in the CPI but
much of this is a one-off spike caused
by the introduction of the goods and
services tax. Along with inflation, wage
pressure has begun to emerge. The
Australian dollar has been affected by
demand for US dollars. It has recently
tracked the Euro and is now trading at
US51c. It has similarly depreciated
against sterling, which now stands at
around A$2.90.
Micro-economic Developments
The Australian economy has undergone
an extensive period of reform over the
last 15 years. The reforms were begun
by the Hawke and Keating Labour
governments, which oversaw financial
sector reforms and the development
of a national competition policy,
including the creation of a powerful
Australian Consumer and Competition
Council. This led to a dramatic increase
in Australian productivity growth and in
turn to the high rates of economic
growth achieved in the 1990s. The
present Coalition government continued
these reforms with changes to
employment law, notably stronger
enterprise level wage bargaining, and
the partial privatisation of the
government owned telecommunications
utility, Telstra. Latterly its efforts
have concentrated on reform of the
tax system through the introduction of
a VAT style Goods and Services Tax
(GST) and changes to company
taxation.
However, as the 1998 electoral
challenge from the One Nation Party
demonstrated, public concern about
further economic reforms and
privatisations is high. This has caused
the Federal (and State) governments
to pull back from a number of
measures under consideration. Most
notably, it has decided to delay
privatisation of the remaining
two-thirds of Telstra. The tax package
contained a number of proposals aimed
unashamedly at strengthening the
government's support in rural
Australia. The government has also,
somewhat controversially, refused on
national interest grounds, a take-over
bid by Shell for Woodside, an Australian
oil and gas exploration company with
major assets in the Northwest shelf.
Economic Outlook
Australia is not insulated from events
in the rest of the world, particularly
the United States and Japan. However,
its primary producers will usually be
able to find markets for their
products, even when the global
economy slows. Any reduction in prices
is more than compensated for by the
weak dollar. Domestically, company
failures have had an effect on
confidence. But while lower interest
rates keep the housing sector growing,
uncertainty over employment may act
mainly to keep a cap on inflation that
might otherwise be a concern to policy
makers.
The Australian economy has enjoyed a
decade of economic growth, averaging
3.8% per annum, and successfully
weathered the Asian financial crisis of
1997/98. The Australian economy looks
well placed to continue a healthy
growth rate this year. It has broken
from previous cycles and so far not
followed the US economy into
recession. The rise in home buildings
and furnishings and strong domestic
retail sales have underpinned the
economy's strength, and it is hoped
that they will maintain enough
momentum to overcome any export
slowdown caused by the global
economy. The Reserve Bank of
Australia have maintained interest
rates at 4.25% after December's
higher than expected inflation figures
of 3%. Overall prospects for the
economy look good.
Trade and Investment
In Financial Year 2000-01 Australia's
merchandise trade surplus with the
world was A$135m compared with the
A$12.9bn deficit in the previous year.
Australian exports to all its major
partners and regional groupings rose in
2000. Sectorally, there was an
increase in all export commodities, but
unsurprisingly mineral fuels were the
outstanding performers with an
increase of A$17bn to A$24bn. Imports
too rose in all categories except capital
goods. The largest increase was
non-industrial transport equipment,
which rose by 24% to A$9.6bn.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Australia's Relations with its
Neighbours
Australia is a significant regional power
in Asia and the Pacific, where most of
its trade and security interests lie. It
plays a constructive role in the
maintenance of peace and stability in
the South Pacific and has strong
relationships with Japan, the Republic
of Korea and Singapore.
Australia is one of the most active
participants in the ASEAN Regional
Forum, which brings together Asia
Pacific countries and the European
Union (EU) in an evolving security
dialogue for the region. Separately,
Australia has bilateral security
dialogues with China, Japan, South
Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand.
The security arrangement Australia
had with Indonesia was abrogated over
East Timor, but will be rebuilt as
Indonesian democracy consolidates.
Australia is deservedly proud of the
role it has played in the region in
recent years in peacekeeping,
facilitating dialogue and supporting
stability and good government.
Australia's Relations with the
International Community
Australia is a member of the UN, the
Commonwealth, APEC, the WTO,
OECD, ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF),
United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO),
Pacific Islands Forum, Pacific
Community (SPC), and the South
Pacific Regional Environment
Programme (SPREP).
Australia enjoys excellent relations with
the United States. These have
strengthened further since the 11
September terrorist attacks on New
York and Washington, when Prime
Minister Howard happened to be in
New York and witnessed the
devastation first hand. He was able to
offer Australian assistance with the
rescue operation. Many Australians
worked in the World Trade Centre.
Australia also invoked the ANZUS
Treaty - a security agreement
between Australia, New Zealand and
the US that has been the cornerstone
of Australian regional security for 50
years. Australia has also been an
important ally to the US/UK action
against international terrorism,
offering troops, ships and military
equipment to boost the effort.
Australia hosted the Commonwealth
Heads of Government meeting
(CHOGM) in Queensland from 3 - 5
March 2002.
AUSTRALIA'S RELATIONS WITH THE
UK
The UK and Australia have a close and
long-standing relationship, based on
shared history, institutions and outlook.
Political, defence and intelligence
relationships are excellent, while in the
fields of law, education, medicine and
science and technology the two
countries share know-how and similar
institutions. There is a long tradition of
co-operation on international affairs,
based on shared values and
internationalist outlook: both countries
play an active role in major multilateral
organisations (UN, WTO and the
Commonwealth) e.g. on disarmament,
peace keeping, human rights and
humanitarian aid. Trade and investment
figures are impressive: the UK is
Australia's third largest trading partner
and the largest overall foreign investor
in Australia (A$146bn = UK£59bn);
Australia is the sixth largest investor in
the UK.
These strong and growing links are
underpinned by close personal ties
between ordinary Britons and
Australians: 1.2m Australians were born
in the UK; around 10,000 British
citizens migrate to Australia each year;
and over 520,000 Britons obtain visitor
visas (Australian tourists do not
require visas for the UK).
Developing the Relationship
The bilateral relationship remains
strong. As both countries evolve into
multi-cultural, multi-racial societies
and the historic cultural ties inevitably
weaken, we need to work harder at
the relationship to ensure we keep our
links strong. In this context, we have
taken some extra bilateral initiatives to
mark Australia's Centenary of
Federation in 2001, which the British
Prime Minister announced during John
Howard's visit to the UK for Australia
Week in July 2000. An example was the
Australia-Britain Young Leaders
Forum, which was aimed at forging
links between young Australian and
British professionals.
More generally, Australia's international
profile has increased in recent years;
this trend is likely to continue: through
an active role on regional and
multilateral issues, if which its role in
East Timor was an example, and as
host to the 2000 Olympics. Australia
has a respected voice in many
multilateral fora.
Child Migrants
Child Migrants were British children in
care who were sent, under
government approved schemes, to
certain Commonwealth countries
(Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe). These
schemes can be traced as far back as
300 years ago and continued until the
1960s. A House of Commons Health
Select Committee visited Australia in
June 1998 in connection with its inquiry
into the welfare of former child
migrants. The Committee's report, in
July 1998, detailed the stories of many
child migrants who had endured
physical and sexual abuse, systematic
punishment, and separation from
siblings.
The British Government response, in
December 1998, acknowledged that the
child migrants scheme was wrong and
costly in human terms. It offered
'sincere regrets' but not an official
apology or compensation. Rather, it
agreed to increase funding for the
Child Migrants Trust and to set up a
support fund (UK£1m over three
years) to enable child migrants to visit
their relatives in the UK. The
Government has also started work on
a database containing details of child
migrants, and a website to help child
migrants. The support fund,
administered by International Social
Services, became operational on 1 April
1999.
The Australian government made public
its response in January 2000. Many
child migrants found it disappointing
that it did not offer any concrete
measures other than to highlight the
government's ongoing funding for the
Child Migrants Trust. In June, after
lobbying by former child migrants, ALP
members and Democrats, the Senate
Community Affairs Committee agreed
to hold an inquiry into the child
migration scheme. The Committee
published a report on 30 August 2001,
which contains 33 recommendations -
some for the British Government.
These are currently being studied.
Trade and Investment with the UK
The UK is the fifth largest supplier of
Australian merchandise imports with
about 5.9% of the market, and its sixth
largest merchandise trade partner. It is
the ninth largest destination for
Australian exports and the only
European country in the top twelve.
Taking goods and services together,
the United Kingdom is Australia's third
largest trading partner.
UK merchandise exports to Australia
increased by 27% in 2000, worth
A$6.901bn. UK merchandise exports
have declined by 12% in the first half of
2001. Our exports have been hit by the
slow-down in imports of capital goods,
especially in the telecommunications
industry.
The UK is the second largest source of
cumulative foreign investment in
Australia (25% of all foreign
investment), and the second largest
source of direct investment. It is also
the second largest destination for
Australian investment. UK investment in
Australia totalled £65bn by June 2000,
more than three times Australian
investment in the UK. Australia has
been designated as one of the sixteen
Trade Partners UK target markets.
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