Australia: Economic and Political Outline

Economic Overview

After a slowdown due to the global recession, the Australian economy has been resuming growth since 2010 and a growth of around 3% of GDP is expected to continue in 2012. This good performance is due to the tax incentive policy pursued by the government, to the recovery in household consumption and especially to the continued Chinese demand which boosts exports. Australian has been growth is driven by the mining boom since the 2000s.

There is much to envy the Australian economy: the country's public debt is the lowest in the OECD. The Government remains ready to respond to potential effects of the crisis in the euro area, playing on lower interest rates. Priority is given to the implementation of policies adopted by the Parliament in 2011, including the tax on carbon emissions and the tax on profits in the energy sector. The latter aims to correct imbalances between the mining industry, which is doing very well, and other sectors such as tourism and manufacturing. The goal of a return to a balanced budget for the fiscal year 2012/2013 is likely to be achieved, but a reduction in expenditures is expected. The government also seeks to improve national competitiveness, particularly with regard to export competition from Asian countries, as well as to deal with the challenges of an aging population and an environment vulnerable to problems (drought, floods).

Australia is a prosperous country and its per capita GDP is amongst the highest in the world. Despite the recent increase in unemployment rate due to the global economic crisis, this rate remains consistently low, around 5%.

Main Sectors of Industry

The tertiary sector occupies a dominant position in the Australian economy (more than three-fourths of the GDP), but the agricultural and mining sectors are the most important for its exports. Australia is a vast agricultural country and one of the world's main exporters of wool, meat, wheat and cotton. The country is overflowing with mineral and energy raw materials, the export of which ensures it substantial revenues. Australia is among the top 10 producers and exporters of most mineral ores. It has the world's greatest reserves of numerous strategic resources such as uranium, of which it has 40% of the world's proven reserves.

Traditionally Australia is a finished goods importer. Its industrialization is fairly recent, a fact which explains the small scale of its manufacturing sector, which only employs 10% of the active population. The manufacturing industry is built up around the food industry (approximately a fifth of the workforce), machinery and equipment (around 20%), metal processing and metal goods (nearly 20%) and the chemical-petrochemical industry (slightly more than 10%).

Source: World Bank - Last Available Data.

Indicator of Economic Freedom

Score:

82.5/100

Position:

Free

World Rank:

3/179

Regional Rank:

3/38

Distribution of Economic freedom in the world
Source: 2011 Index of Economic freedom, Heritage Foundation

Note: The Economic freedom index measure ten components of economic freedom, grouped into four broad categories or pillars of economic freedom: Rule of Law (property rights, freedom from corruption); Limited Government (fiscal freedom, government spending); Regulatory Efficiency (business freedom, labor freedom, monetary freedom); and Open Markets (trade freedom, investment freedom, financial freedom). Each of the freedoms within these four broad categories is individually scored on a scale of 0 to 100. A country’s overall economic freedom score is a simple average of its scores on the 10 individual freedoms.

Sources of General Economic Information

Ministries

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
Australian Government Agriculture Portal
Minister for Finance and Deregulation
Ministers for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research
Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE)

Statistical Office

Australian Bureau of Statistics

Central Bank

Reserve Bank of Australia

Stock Exchange

Australian Stock Exchange

Other Useful Resources

Business Council of Australia (BCA)
National Office for the Information Economy (NOIE)

Main Online Newspapers

The Australian Financial Review
Business Review Weekly
The Australian
Sydney Morning Herald
The Age
The Daily Telegraph

Political Outline

Type of State

Commonwealth of Australia. Federal State of 6 States and 2 Territories based on a parliamentary democracy.

Executive Power

Australia an independent nation, belonging to the Commonwealth, and recognizes the British Monarch as its sovereign. Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of State. She is represented in Australia by a Governor General who has a symbolic function (he is appointed by her on the recommendation of the Prime Minister). The Prime Minister is the head of the government. He runs State business. It is the Prime Minister who appoints the Cabinet. The Prime Minister is the leader of the party that wins the majority of seats in the House of Representatives at the General Election.

Legislative Power

The parliament is composed of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senators are elected for a 6 year term, and the members of the House of Representatives for a 3 year term minimum. The Prime Minister and the Cabinet are responsible to parliament, of which they must be elected members.

Main Political Parties

A bipartisan system with:
- The Liberal Party (conservative, centre-right, neoliberal);
- The Australian Labor Party (social democrat, centre-left).
Also : The Greens, and the National Party (conservative) in coalition with the Liberal Party.

Current Political Leaders

Prime Minister: Kevin RUDD (elected in December 2007) – Labor Party
Governor General: Quentin Alice Louise BRYCE (since 5 September 2008)

Next Election Dates

Senate : June 2011
Representatives : December 2013

Indicator of Freedom of the Press

World Rank:

30/179

Evolution:

12 places down compared to 2010

Source: Worldwide Press Freedom Index 2011, Reporters Without Borders

Note: The world rankings, published annually, measures the violations of press freedom worldwide. It reflects the degree of freedom enjoyed by journalists, the media and digital citizens of each country and the means used by states to respect and uphold this freedom. Finally, a note and a position is assigned to each country. To compile this index, Reporters Without Borders (RWB) prepared a questionnaire sent to partner organizations,150 RWB correspondents, journalists, researchers, jurists and activists of human rights, including the main criteria - 44 in total - to assess the situation of press freedom in a given country. It includes every kind of direct attacks against journalists and digital citizens (murders, imprisonment, assault, threats, etc.) or against the media (censorship, confiscation, searches and harassment etc.).