Politics of Australia

The politics of Australia take place within the framework of a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Australia has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system under its Constitution, the world's tenth oldest, since Federation in 1901. Australia is the world's sixth oldest continuous democracy and largely operates as a two-party system in which voting is compulsory. Australia is also a federation, where power is divided between the federal government and the states and territories. The federal government is separated into three branches: File:Au_gov_chart.svg|thumb|center|640px|Structure of the Government of Australia|alt=A high level diagram of the structure of the Government of Australia, the three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial. rect 575 6 1175 56 [[Constitution of Australia]] rect 575 191 1175 241 [[Governor General of Australia]] rect 125 341 425 391 [[Legislature|Legislative Branch]] rect 725 341 1025 391 [[Executive (government)|Executive Branch]] rect 1325 341 1625 391 [[Judiciary|Judicial Branch]] rect 25 491 525 541 [[Parliament of Australia]] rect 25 542 275 642 [[House of Representatives (Australia)|House of Representatives]] rect 275 542 525 642 [[Australian_Senate|Senate]] rect 625 491 1125 541 [[Federal Executive Council (Australia)|Federal Executive Council]] rect 625 542 875 642 [[List of Australian ministries|Current Ministers]] rect 875 542 1125 642 [[List of Australian ministries|Previous Ministers]] rect 1225 491 1725 541 [[High Court of Australia]] rect 623 743 873 843 [[List of Australian Government entities|Government Departments]] rect 1225 642 1725 692 [[Judiciary_of_Australia#Federal_courts|Other federal courts]] Legislature: the bicameral Parliament, defined in section 1 of the constitution as comprising the monarch (represented by the governor-general), the Senate, and the House of Representatives; Executive: the Federal Executive Council, which in practice gives legal effect to the decisions of the cabinet, comprising the prime minister and ministers of state who advise the governor-general; Judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the governor-general on advice of the Federal Executive Council.