Politics of Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy with a liberal democratic political system. The Constitution of Australia is the world's tenth-oldest, having been in place since Federation in 1901. Australia is a federation of the six states and the two territories.

Australia's system of government has been influenced by many other systems, mostly the British Westminster system and the American federalist system, so it has sometimes been described as the "Washminster system" (a blend of "Washington" and "Westminster").

There are three tiers of government in Australia: the federal government, the state/territory government and local government.

The Australian head of government is called the Prime Minister. The Australian head of state is the Monarch (King or Queen), who is also the head of state of the United Kingdom and many other countries (like Canada and New Zealand, as well as many others). The monarch is represented by the Governor General. The current Prime Minister is Anthony Albanese (who was elected in 2022) and the current Governor General is David Hurley, who represents King Charles III.

## Federal government

The federal government has three branches:
- Legislature: the bicameral Parliament, which is the House of Representatives (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house)
- Executive: the Federal Executive Council, which gives legal effect to the decisions of the Cabinet
- Judiciary: the High Court and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the Governor General

## Related pages

- List of political parties in Australia

## Infobox (political system)

- **name**: Politics of Australia
- **image**: Coat of arms of the Commonwealth of Australia.svg
- **image size**: 150
- **caption**: Coat of arms of Australia, Coat of arms
- **government**: Federalism, Federal Parliamentary system, parliamentary constitutional monarchy
- **constitution**: Constitution of Australia
- **formation**: 1 January 1901
- **legislature**: Parliament of Australia, Parliament
- **legislature type**: Bicameralism, Bicameral
- **legislature place**: Parliament House, Canberra, Parliament House
- **upperhouse**: Australian Senate, Senate
- **upperhouse speaker**: Sue Lines
- **upperhouse speaker title**: President of the Senate (Australia), President
- **lowerhouse**: House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives
- **lowerhouse speaker**: Milton Dick
- **lowerhouse speaker title**: Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, Speaker
- **title hos**: Monarchy of Australia, Monarch represented by Governor-General of Australia, Governor-General
- **current hos**: Charles III represented by David Hurley
- **title hog**: Prime Minister of Australia, Prime Minister
- **current hog**: Anthony Albanese
- **title hog2**: Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Deputy Prime Minister
- **current hog2**: Richard Marles
- **cabinet**: Cabinet of Australia, Cabinet of the Federal Executive Council (Australia), Federal Executive Council
- **current cabinet**: Albanese Ministry
- **cabinet leader**: Prime Minister
- **cabinet deputyleader**: Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, Deputy Prime Minister
- **cabinet ministries**: List of Australian government entities, 30
- **judiciary**: Judiciary of Australia, Judiciary
- **judiciary head**: Susan Kiefel
- **judiciary head title**: Chief Justice of Australia, Chief Justice
- **courts**: Judiciary of Australia#Australian court hierarchy, Courts of Australia
- **court**: High Court of Australia, High Court