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1. Important Facts
Welcome to my presentation about Australia.
First I would like to tell you some facts about Australia so that you get a better idea about it.
Australia is a own continent. 18,5 million people live there on 7,682 squarekilometres of land. On average there are only 2,3 inhabitants per squarekilometre. In Europe for example there are 132,5 people per squarekilometre. Australia consists of 8 federals. The capital city is Canberra with only 300.000 inhabitants.The biggest cities are Syndey, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide, all over 1 million inhabitants. Most of the people live in cities in the southeast. Some parts of Australia are even not populated.
2. History
60.000 years bevor Jesus Christ was born the first settlers came from Indonesia to Australia. This is the oldest artifact of human living. In the 17. century the first european man called William Jansz entered Australia. In 1770 the british man James Cook took the east part of Australia over. In the 18. and 19. century the first inhabitants stayed there and discovered the continent. In 1901 Australia became a part of the Federal Commonwealth of Nations. In the first world war Australia was involved because is was british colony. They fought in Samoa and Neuguinea for Great Britain. In the second world war it was possible the same. After it half a million europeans immigrated to Australia. Altough it is a british colony, in 1966 they got there own money, the Australian Dollar. The Australians voted to stay a british colony and maintained the monarchy in 1999. To prove their independence and to show the world their land they organized the Olympic Games in the year 2000.
3. The economy of Australia
Basically Australia has an social oriented free - market economy like Austria but the government and the central bank intervene when it is necessary.
The economy of Australia has changed 20 years ago. Before it was a inward-looking country with less export and now it's a very important export country. The important export products are coal, oil, meat and different kinds of metal. Australia is addictet to the asiatic countries, because they are nearer than Europe, Afrika and America. A big innovation was the privatizing of many governmental -owned services and public utilities and a fundamental reform of the taxation system. They made an obligatory taxation of 7,5 percent for the retirement fund called "superanuation" for all the people. Now they have 400 billions Australian Dollars saved und they give credits to other countries.
Australia has the same level of development as Austria. 74% percent of the working population are in the service sector, 7% are in the agricultural and mining sector, the remaining population is in the industrial and trading sector. The agricultural and mining sector is not so important then before. In central Australia there are still some cattle farms. In the south there is cultivation of wine and wheat farms.
Finally Australia's economy is one of the fastest growing economys wordlwide. In 2002 they had an ecnomomic growth of 3,2%.
4. Government of Australia
The Commonwealth government was created with a constitution patterned partly on the U.S. Constitution. The powers of the Commonwealth are specifically defined in the constitution.
Australia is an independent nation within the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II is the sovereign and she has been officially styled \'Queen of Australia' since 1973. The Queen is represented throughout Australia by a general governor and in each state by a another governor. Australia has a division of powers like the U.S.A. Australia has a senate with 76 members and a House of Representatives with 150 members. Twelve Senators from each state are elected for 6-year terms, with half elected every 3 years. Each territory has two Senators who are elected for 3- year terms. The members of the House of Representatives are in proportion to population. That's the legislativ power. Each state is headed by a premier. Australia is splitted in two self-governing territories, Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The political systems in these territories is similar to those of the states. The High Court of Australia is the judical power and the rights are in all states the same.
That was my presentation about Australia and it's economy.
Thank you
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