Australia: Country Factfile

Overview Area
7,682,300km 2

Population density
2.9 people/km 2

Currency
Australian dollar (A$ = 100 cents)

Location
Some 3,680km from its eastern tip to its western extreme, Australia is the world's second largest island. The country lies about 1,000km from New Zealand, and about 500km south of Indonesia. Thus its climate ranges from the subtropical in the north to the significantly colder regions of the south. The capital is Canberra.

Head of state
HM Queen Elizabeth II (1952)

Head of government
Julia Gillard (2010)

Ruling party
The Australian Labour Party leads a minority coalition with the support of one member of the Green Party and three independents.

Political structure
Australia is a federation of six states and two territories (Northern Territory and Capital Territory of Canberra), each of which exercises considerable autonomy over its own affairs. The country's central affairs are run by a Cabinet which answer to a 150member House of Representatives, elected for a term of three years. The Senate has 76 members, elected through a preferential system in 12-seat state constituencies and two-seat territorial constituencies. The territorial senators are elected for a three-year term. The state senators are elected for a six-year term, with half of the seats renewed every three years.

Last elections
Elections to the House of Representatives took place in August 2010. The Liberal/National coalition won 71 seats as did the Australian Labour Party. Independents won the remaining 2 seats. Elections to the Senate occurred at the same time with 40 seats to be decided. The Liberal/National Coalition now holds 34 seats, the Labour Party controls 31, The Australian Green Party has 9 seats and the Democratic Labour Party has 1 seat. There is also 1 independent. Gillard retained her position as prime minister after negotiating a new coalition.

Political risk
Aboriginal relations pose a constant problem for the government. Canberra spends A$3 billion each year on aboriginal welfare. Meanwhile, large chunks of land are under the control of aboriginal communal councils. Many officials believe that the best way to bring these minorities into the economy is to grant them private title to these communal lands. The proposal is strongly opposed by others. Australians face rather serious problems as a result of their country's ageing population. A low birth rate combined with the impending retirement of baby boomers is the source of the problem. The population aged 65 years and over will exceed 3.5 million by 2015, up from just 1.4 million in 1980. To counter these trends, the government plans a series of programmes to boost labour force participation and raise productivity.

International disputes
The current government has reversed the decision of its predecessor and ratified the Kyoto protocol on the environment. It is also playing a much more active role in new environmental initiatives despite mounting opposition at home. Nonetheless, Australia is still the world's second largest producer of greenhouse gases per capita after the USA. There is a dispute with East

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Timor over the distribution of oil and gas revenues in the Timor Sea. Australia also asserts land and maritime claims to Antarctica, which are not recognised by the USA.

Main industries
Farmers are specialised in wheat and sheep-rearing. Together, these two activities account for more than half of the sector's export revenues. The sector is efficient in its use of manpower but requires up to 70% of the country's scarce water resources. Following a serious drought, the government has responded with a massive programme of drought relief but rural water reform has made little progress. Government officials predict a much improved outlook for exports of dairy and meat products in 2010. Manufacturing firms succeed mainly through differentiation and specialisation. They have also been helped by a strong burst of productivity growth in the past decade outpacing even the USA which analysts attribute to reforms such as privatisation, new competition policies and lower tariffs. Manufacturing output stagnated in 2009 and 80,000 jobs were lost. However, the sector's fortunes began to improve in the fourth quarter of 2009 and a strong recovery is expected in 2010. Australia has vast amounts of natural resources. It is the world's largest exporter of coal (30% of the global total), has almost 40% of the world's recoverable uranium and is on course to become the second largest exporter of liquefied natural gas by 2015. In addition, Australia is a major producer of copper, iron ore, manganese, nickel, lead, limestone and gemstones. Huge investments in mining have been planned but some are now being scaled back as government officials exert more control on the inflows of foreign capital.

Economy
The economy has grown steadily over the past two decades. Living standards have also improved and now surpass all G7 countries except the USA. Real GDP, however, grew by just 1.3% during 2009. To help the economy, the government introduced one stimulus in late 2008 valued at US$10.4 billion. In 2009, a second stimulus valued at US$27 billion was approved. Most of this spending has gone into infrastructure, road repairs and home improvements. The share of exports of goods and services account in GDP has been rising for a number of years. The gains come mainly from services and manufactured goods as well as sales of raw materials to China. A setback occurred in 2009 when the real value of exports fell by 17.6%. A recovery is expected in the near term, however, while, over the longer term, conclusion of the free trade pact with ASEAN countries will help to sustain the growth of exports.

Energy
Australia has 4.2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. Most of these reserves offshore are in the Bass Strait off southern Australia and the Carnarvon Basin off Western Australia. Production has fallen in recent years as existing oil fields are depleted and no new fields are brought online. Australia has shale oil reserves estimated to be as much as 30 billion barrels. The country also has 2.6 trillion cubic metres of proven natural gas reserves and the government estimates that offshore basins may hold about twice that amount of undeveloped reserves. Planned development of the Gorgon gas field is being driven by increased demand in booming Asian economies. Analysts predict that by 2020 Australia could become the world's second-largest exporter of liquid natural gas after Qatar. Australia's energy consumption is dominated by coal, which provides most of its power generation. It is now the worlds fourth largest producer of coal. A rapidly expanding economy and declining domestic oil production have led some observers to forecast an energy supply crisis in the next ten years. The government, itself, expects energy demand to rise by 50% by 2020. Australia also has approximately 40% of the world's recoverable uranium.

Statistical Summary
2004 Inflation (% change) Exchange rate (per US$) Lending rate GDP (% real growth) GDP (national currency millions) GDP (US$ millions) Population, mid-year ('000) Birth rate (per '000) Death rate (per '000) No. of households ('000) Total exports (US$ millions) Total imports (US$ millions) Tourism receipts (US$ millions) Tourism spending (US$ millions) Urban population ('000) Urban population (%) Population aged 0-14 (%) 2.3 1.36 8.9 3.6 2005 2.7 1.31 9.1 3.2 2006 3.5 1.33 9.4 2.6 783,110.6 20,885.2 12.8 6.5 7,596.2 123,437.4 132,732.8 17,854.0 11,690.0 18,293.8 88.4 19.6 2007 2.3 1.20 8.2 4.8 2008 4.4 1.19 8.9 2.2 2009 1.8 1.28 6.0 1.2 980,156.7 21,948.3 13.7 6.8 8,043.2 154,335.7 159,091.5 26,427.7 20,805.7 19,384.6 88.9 19.2

893,883.0 966,032.0 1,039,950.0 1,134,430.0 1,237,880.0 1,257,020.0 657,386.5 737,725.6 20,261.1 12.6 6.6 7,412.2 20,546.3 12.7 6.4 7,529.4 949,256.2 1,038,283.1 21,252.1 13.5 6.5 7,795.0 141,358.4 157,906.9 22,415.0 14,853.0 18,664.3 88.6 19.4 21,614.2 13.7 6.7 7,918.8 187,250.0 191,541.9 25,062.0 18,729.0 19,021.8 88.8 19.3

86,564.5 106,097.2 103,865.4 118,867.5 15,214.0 10,242.0 17,711.5 88.0 19.9 16,868.0 11,253.0 17,986.8 88.2 19.7

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Population aged 15-64 (%) Population aged 65+ (%) Male population (%) Female population (%) Life expectancy male (years) Life expectancy female (years) Infant mortality (deaths per '000 live births) Adult literacy (%)

67.3 12.8 49.6 50.4 78.1 83.0 5.1 99.9

67.3 12.9 49.7 50.3 78.5 83.3 5.0 99.9

67.4 13.0 49.7 50.3 78.7 83.5 5.0 99.9

67.5 13.1 49.7 50.3 79.0 83.7 4.9 99.9

67.5 13.2 49.7 50.3 79.2 83.7 4.8 99.9

67.4 13.4 49.8 50.2 79.4 83.8 4.8 99.9

Imports and Exports

Major export destinations Asia-Pacific Other countries Europe North America Africa and the Middle East Australasia 2008 Share (%) Major import sources 55.8 Asia Pacific 13.3 Europe 12.1 North America 6.3 Other countries 6.0 Australasia 4.3 Africa and the Middle East 2008 Share (%) 48.5 22.8 13.1 6.5 3.8 3.4

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