Australia

Australia A country whose society, economy, and politics until the 1960s were dominated first by its closeness to Britain as part of the British Empire and Commonwealth, and then by moves to formulate a specific Australian identity conscious of its geopolitical closeness to Asia. It comprises the erstwhile British colonies of New South Wales (which became self-governing in 1855), Victoria (1855), Tasmania (1856), South Australia (1856, including the Northern Territories), Queensland (1859), and Western Australia (1890). These former colonies became states within a federation as the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, created by a British Act of Parliament.

Since then, national politics have been characterized by two developments. First, the federal government, supported by a House of Representatives and a Senate, initially had relatively few powers compared with the individual states. It gradually increased its role against that of the individual states when it assumed responsibility for the national crises of the Great Depression and the two World Wars. Secondly, the federal government was originally restricted by the role of the British government, which remained responsible for Australia's defence and foreign policies. Australia received its formal independence over all policy matters through the Statute of Westminster in 1931. However, it only started to pursue an independent foreign policy in 1942, when the defeat of the British in Singapore and the Japanese invasion of Dutch East India (Indonesia) demonstrated that its security was bound up with the USA, not with the UK.

The country's electoral system, modelled mainly on that of Britain, has produced a stable governmental system. At the same time, the increase of federal powers, which was sometimes achieved at great political cost, led to a considerable flux within the national party system. The Australian Labor Party was significantly weakened by splits to form the National Labor Party in 1917, and the Democratic Labor Party in 1957, as well as by defections of many of its most effective leaders, such as Hughes, Lyons, and Lang. Meanwhile, despite the relative stability of the Country Party (National Party since 1982), the main conservative opposition to Labor has had to regroup three times, forming the Nationalist Party (1917–32), the United Australia Party (1932–44), and the Liberal Party (since 1945). Ultimately, Labor's splits proved to be more debilitating than conservative regroupings, so that for most of the century federal government was held by conservatives (1901–8, 1909–10, 1913–14, 1917–29, 1932–41, 1949–72, 1975–83, 1996– ).

As part of the British Empire, Australia made a significant contribution towards the Allied victory in World War I. Yet as the need for troops in Europe increased, the pressing question of compulsory military service overseas caused deep divisions within society, and was rejected twice in a referendum. Owing to the organizational talents of Monash, the returning troops were decommissioned without great disruption. After the war, an economic boom and immigration causedgeneral optimism which led many to believe that Australia would become an immigrant country second only to the US in population, power, and wealth. These hopes were shattered by the Great Depression, when Scullin's inability to control his own Labor Party's response exacerbated general discontent, expressed in the rise of Communist and right-wing paramilitary groups, such as the New Guard. Calm was restored by the more disciplined and stable Lyons government, which dominated Australian politics during the 1930s.

Led by Menzies and Curtin (from 1941), Australia mobilized all its economic and manpower resources to support the British during World War II. However, Australian leaders were soon disappointed and frustrated by the British use of these troops without keeping them informed, let alone consulted. They withdrew some of the troops stationed in Egypt to defend Australia against a possible Japanese attack, though the possibility of such an attack was significantly exaggerated by Curtin in order to win approval for his drastic war measures.

After the war, Australia's new relationship with the USA was underlined by the conclusion of a military alliance (ANZUS), as well as Australian participation in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Under Calwell and Chifley, there began a slight shift in the traditional immigration policy in favour of immigration from southern and eastern Europe. It was the Menzies governments from 1949 that laid the foundations of the modern Australian state through the expansion of university and secondary school education, and the creation of a system of social security.

The years 1965–75 formed a decisive watershed in politics, society, and government. Changing attitudes to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders began a process of their recognition as an integral part of Australia's heritage and society, starting with their achievement of full Australian citizenship in 1967. Furthermore, attitudes towards immigration changed, leading to the scrapping of the racist White Australia Policy and an influx of Asian immigrants. Finally, its traditional trading patterns, whereby most of its imports came from the UK as finished goods, while most of its exports went to the UK as primary (agricultural and mineral) goods, ended with Britain's entry into the EEC. As Australian goods were subsequently liable to EEC import duties, it focused its trading activities on its Asian neighbours.

All these factors sparked off a gradual growth of Australian nationalism away from Britain. This was confirmed by the dismissal of Whitlam in 1975, which called into question the role of the Governor-General representing the head of the state, the British monarch ( Queen Elizabeth II). In contrast to Fraser, who lost support because of the economic recession up to 1982, Hawke and Keating proved particularly adept at formulating this change in consciousness, vociferously defending Australian interests on the world stage. However, on 2 March 1996 Australians rejected Keating's more flamboyant style in favour of Howard's more sturdy focus on tackling the country's problems of youth unemployment and excessive social spending. As Australia celebrated its centenary, it thus experienced a sustained period of economic growth. The nation's growing self-confidence was reflected in its international role, as Australian troops led the UN mission to create the state of East Timor. John Howard's popularity was dented by a comprehensive reform of the tax system and the controversial introduction of a goods and services tax, but he narrowly won the elections of 2001.

Table 1. Australian Prime Ministers, 1901–2002

Edmund Barton	1901–3
Alfred Deakin	1903–4
John Watson	1904
George Reid	1904–5
Alfred Deakin	1905–8
Andrew Fisher	1908–9
Alfred Deakin	1909–10
Andrew Fisher	1910–13
Joseph Cook	1913–14
Andrew Fisher	1914–15
William Morris Hughes	1915–23
Stanley Bruce	1923–9
James Henry Scullin	1929–31
Joseph Aloysius Lyons	1932–9
Robert Menzies	1939–41
Arthur W. Fadden	1941
John Curtin	1941–5
Francis M. Forde	1945
Ben Chifley	1945–9
Robert Menzies	1949–66
Harold Holt	1966–7
John McEwen	1967–8
John Gorton	1968–71
William McMahon	1971–2
Gough Whitlam	1972–5
Malcolm Fraser	1975–83
Robert Hawke	1983–91
Paul Keating	1991–6
John Winston Howard	1996–