Government

Since 1901 Australia has been a federation and our central government is based in Canberra. The Federation is made up of six states and two territories. The nation inherited the central parliamentary system from the English Westminster model where there are three tiers of government consisting of the Federal, State and Local. Each state has its own government and the heads of these states are called premiers and the head of the Federal government is called the Prime Minister. On that note, our current Prime Minister of Australia is John Howard and Victoria's premier is Steve Bracks.

Political Groups
The three main political groups are the Australian Labour Party (ALP) The Liberal/National Coalition and The Australian Democrats. There are additional party's to this mix and one that is notably surging in strength, The Greens who took a large chunk out the support base of the Australian Democrats last Federal Election.

The ALP is a socialist party that was devised from the workers disputes and Shearer's strikes of the 1890's. The Liberal Party was formed in the late 1940's by Sir Robert Menzies who led Australia from 1949 - 1966 and is more of a conservative party that represents the interest of free enterprise, law and order and family values. The Australian Democrats formed in 1977 with a pledge to 'Keep the Bastards Honest'.

Victoria's state government is made up of the Legislative Council being the Upper House with 44 elected representatives. The Legislative Assembly is the Lower House with 88 elected representatives. Elections are held every 4 years and voting is compulsory for everyone over the age of 18 years.