Australia is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy. The leader of the popularly elected majority party or coalition is designated as prime minister, and serves as head of government. Anthony Albanese, leader of the Labor Party, became prime minister after free and fair federal elections in May 2022.

A governor-general, appointed on the recommendation of the prime minister, represents the monarch of the United Kingdom as head of state. The powers of the monarchy are extremely limited. David Hurley was appointed governor-general in 2019.

The bicameral Parliament consists of a 151-member House of Representatives and a 76-member Senate. Lower house members are elected to three-year terms through ranked-choice balloting in single-member districts. Senators are elected to staggered six-year terms, also through ranked-choice balloting, with the states and territories serving as multimember districts.

The 2022 federal elections returned the center-left Labor Party to power after almost a decade in opposition. It won 77 seats in the House of Representatives, enough to form a single-party majority. The previous ruling coalition, composed of longtime right-leaning partners the Liberal Party and the National Party, won just 58 seats, losing 19 in a historic defeat. Scott Morrison, then the prime minister, kept his seat, but he was soon replaced as Liberal Party leader by Peter Dutton.

Independent candidates and the Greens also gained ground, taking 10 and 4 lower house seats, respectively. Six of the independent seats were claimed by a loose association of mostly female candidates. Two small parties, Centre Alliance and Katter’s Australian Party, each won a single seat.

Of the 40 Senate seats at stake in the same elections, Labor and the Liberal-National coalition each won 15, the Greens won 6, and the remainder was divided between independents and minor parties, with a single seat going to the far-right One Nation Party. Turnout for the election stood at 89.8 percent.

Australian electoral laws and procedures are generally fair and impartial. The AEC—an independent federal agency—coordinates all federal elections and referendums, draws constituency boundaries, and keeps the electoral rolls. Voting is compulsory, and a registered voter’s failure to vote may result in a small fine, which if unpaid can increase and ultimately lead to a criminal conviction.

In August 2023, ahead of the October constitutional referendum on whether to create an Indigenous representative body to advise Parliament and the government, opposition leader and “no” campaigner Peter Dutton alleged, without evidence, that the AEC’s vote-counting rules were unfair and suggested that the outcome would be “rigged.” The AEC instructed voters to clearly write either “yes” or “no” on the ballot paper, but also had a long-standing practice of counting ticks, or check marks, as “yes” votes, but not counting crosses, or X symbols, as “no” votes; Dutton’s comments were directed at this practice. The AEC rejected Dutton’s claims, stressing its established procedures and the low number of such votes in previous referendums. In September, the Federal Court of Australia separately dismissed a legal challenge to the AEC’s counting practice brought by the right-wing United Australia Party. Also ahead of the vote, the AEC said that its staff were being threatened online in connection with conspiracy theories related to the counting of ticks and crosses.

Following the referendum, in which more than 60 percent of participants voted “no” amid turnout of nearly 90 percent, leading “no” campaigner and Northern Territory senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price alleged that the AEC had interfered with voting in remote polling stations by allowing “yes” campaigners to “overpower vulnerable Aboriginal communities” through the distribution of how-to-vote materials. The AEC rejected the claim, noting that the ability to campaign at polling stations was the same for everyone throughout the country.

Australians may organize political parties without restrictions. Registration and recognition as a political party requires a party constitution as well as either one member in Parliament or at least 500 members on the electoral roll.

Transfers of power between rival parties occur frequently, with the Labor Party and the Liberal-National coalition traditionally alternating in government. The Greens and smaller left-leaning parties tend to ally with Labor, while rural-oriented and conservative parties often ally with the Liberals.

Political participation is largely free from undue domestic influence. The British monarch remains the Australian head of state, but the monarchy’s power is strictly limited by the Australian constitution and legal precedent.

Concerns about foreign interference, particularly from China, in Australia’s politics have persisted for several years. The government has banned foreign donations to political parties, candidates, and political campaign groups, while also requiring those who engage in political activities (including lobbying on behalf of a foreign government) to be publicly registered. In the lead-up to the 2023 Voice referendum, concerns were raised that the campaign would be a target for foreign interference, especially on social media platforms. The head of Australia’s main intelligence agency, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, later rejected speculation that foreign interference had influenced the referendum’s outcome.

Political rights and electoral opportunities are granted to all Australians. The interests of women are inadequately represented, but the 2022 elections set the stage for possible progress. After the elections, 58 lower house seats, or 38 percent, were held by women, an increase of 10 from the previous Parliament. Women also made up a majority of the Senate, holding 57 percent of its seats. A group of female independents notably ousted male incumbents in seats that were long considered safe. In addition, the Labor Party employs an internal quota requiring 45 percent of its candidates to be women (rising to 50 percent by 2025), though the two parties that comprise the opposition coalition have no such requirement.

Women in Parliament have long reported being intimidated and harassed by their male colleagues, and a series of high-profile sexual assault scandals have emerged in recent years. In 2021, then attorney general Christian Porter was accused of sexual assaults dating back several decades, and in 2019 Liberal Party staffer Brittany Higgins alleged that she had been raped by a male colleague in the office of Linda Reynolds, the defense industry minister at the time. Criminal proceedings in the latter case were aborted in October 2022 due to juror misconduct, and a retrial, set for February 2023, was abandoned out of concern for Higgins’s mental health.

In the October 2023 Voice referendum, Australians voted to reject a constitutional amendment that would have created an Indigenous representative body to advise lawmakers and the government on policy matters related to First Nations peoples, including health care, education, and justice. The proposal stemmed from the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, a document produced by First Nations elders and framed as an invitation for reconciliation from First Nations peoples to Australia’s non-Indigenous population. A successful constitutional amendment would have required support from both a majority of voters nationally and majorities of voters in a majority of the states and territories.

The opposition Liberal Party’s April 2023 announcement that it would oppose the Voice measure, together with a perceived lack of information about what form the new body would take, reportedly caused initial support to wane. The “no” campaign alleged that the Voice would elevate First Nations Australians to an unequal position in society. The efforts of a number of high-profile Indigenous opponents, who argued that the Voice would not bring about meaningful change or did not go far enough in recognizing First Nations’ sovereignty, also undermined supporters’ claims that the proposal represented a consensus of First Nations views. Observers noted that the timing of the referendum—in the midst of housing and cost-of-living crises and during a period of international uncertainty—may have led a majority of voters to conclude that Indigenous affairs were not as pressing as other issues.

Although the 2023 referendum’s failure was a setback for those seeking constitutional recognition of Australia’s First Nations peoples, the 2022 elections had brought the total number of sitting Indigenous legislators to 11. The proportion of First Nations parliamentarians—4.8 percent—now exceeds the proportion of Indigenous Australians in the general population—3.3 percent. In addition, several individual states, including New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, and South Australia, have committed to legislating First Nations Voices or to continue the process of treaty-making and truth-telling within their jurisdictions.

The freely elected government is generally able to develop and implement policy without undue interference.

Laws against official corruption are generally well enforced, and all states and territories have their own anticorruption bodies.

A federal-level body, the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), began operating in July 2023, having been established under legislation that passed the Parliament in 2022. The NACC has retrospective powers to investigate a broad range of conduct by public officials, though some of its features—such as a stipulation that hearings will be public only in exceptional circumstances—have drawn criticism from legislators and transparency experts. More than 2,300 referrals were made to the NACC by late December 2023, including an allegation that a former senior minister under the Liberal Party government, Stuart Robert, had used his influence to facilitate the awarding of public contracts to a lobbying firm with which he was said to have personal ties.

A new scandal that emerged in 2023 centered on allegations that partners at consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) had advised the federal government on the drafting of taxation legislation while simultaneously offering advice to corporate clients on how to evade compliance with those laws. PwC was referred to the NACC in July 2023.

Government operations are characterized by a high degree of transparency, and political affairs are openly discussed in Parliament and in the media. Parliamentary records and commissioned reports are readily available. The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act allows people to access a wide range of government documents, though some government agencies have been criticized for long delays and unnecessary refusals of FOI requests.

In 2022, reports emerged that the previous prime minister, Scott Morrison, had secretly appointed himself co-minister of five portfolios between March 2020 and May 2021, giving him power over 6 of the 14 departments of state. Notably, three of Morrison’s own cabinet ministers were unaware that he had appointed himself to their portfolios. In November 2022, following the publication of a scathing report by a retired High Court justice assigned to investigate the matter, Morrison became the first former Australian prime minister to be censured by Parliament.

In response to the Morrison scandal, in June 2023 the House of Representatives passed legislation requiring the governor-general’s official secretary to publish, as soon as possible, a notification that the governor-general had appointed, or revoked the appointment of, any person to the Federal Executive Council, or to administer a department of state, or that the governor-general had directed any minister of state to hold an office. The bill passed the Senate in November 2023 and was signed into law that month.

Though the constitution does not explicitly protect press freedom, journalists are able to scrutinize lawmakers and the government, generally covering controversial topics without serious obstacles or the risk of harassment or violence. Members of the press have sometimes been constrained by the use of judicial suppression orders while covering criminal cases.

The 2021 News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code established an arbitration regime that requires digital platforms, such as Facebook and Google, to negotiate with and ultimately pay news outlets for the use of their content. The code has resulted in an increase in revenue for Australian news outlets.

Public figures, including politicians, regularly sue journalists or members of the public for defamation in response to the publication of unfavorable stories or other content about them, particularly online. In October 2023, the Federal Court of Australia ordered the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to pay Heston Russell, a retired Australian special forces officer, A$390,000 (US$258,000) after it published articles alleging that Russell had committed war crimes during his service in Afghanistan. According to the court, the ABC had failed to prove that its reporting was in the public interest. The case was the first test of a new “public interest” defense available to defendants in defamation litigation; it had been adopted into law in 2021 to curb the chilling effect of defamation suits on public interest journalism.

The constitution explicitly prohibits laws that would either impose or restrict religious expression, and individuals are generally able to express religious beliefs or nonbelief in practice.

Academic freedom is generally respected. However, federal officials have in the past warned of Chinese government attempts to monitor Chinese students in Australia, and to question academics in Australia whose views differed from those of Beijing. Some students have expressed fears of foreign surveillance, prompting them to wear masks to protect their identities while protesting Chinese government actions. Some universities receive significant amounts of foreign funding, particularly from China, which has further raised concerns over Beijing’s influence on curriculums and university governance.

Generally, people in Australia may freely discuss personal views on sensitive topics, though the government has passed several laws in recent years to increase its surveillance powers. A data retention law requires telecommunications companies to store users’ metadata for two years and has raised concerns about the government’s ability to track mobile and online communications.

The 2021 Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Act granted the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission broad surveillance authority, including the ability to take over user accounts and disrupt user activity. Rights groups have criticized the laws as overly broad with insufficient safeguards.

The 2018 Assistance and Access Act requires technology companies to provide law enforcement agencies with access to encrypted communications, on grounds that include preventing terrorism and crime. Civil rights groups have criticized the law’s broad reach, relative lack of oversight, and steep fines for companies that do not comply.

Freedom of assembly is not explicitly codified in law, but the government generally respects this right in practice. There are some limited restrictions meant to ensure public safety, and some incidents of police using excessive force against protesters have been reported.

Following the October 2023 terrorist attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israeli forces’ devastating military response in the Gaza Strip, pro-Palestinian rallies were held in most of Australia’s major cities. One such protest in October, outside Sydney’s iconic Opera House, was marred by some attendees’ antisemitic chants of “gas the Jews.” New South Wales police faced criticism for advising members of the city’s Jewish community to avoid the central business district for their own safety. In November, pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield, which has a significant Jewish population. Despite these incidents, weekly pro-Palestinian rallies in urban centers across the country remained largely peaceful through year’s end.

Nongovernmental organizations are generally free to form, function, and receive funding. Advocacy groups and charities are exempt from restrictions on donations by certain foreign entities, which were introduced in 2018.

Workers can freely organize and bargain collectively, and trade unions actively engage in political debates and campaigns. Strikes are only allowed when unions are negotiating a contract with an employer, and may only pertain to issues under negotiation, though strikes and other forms of industrial action are not uncommon in practice.

While there are no formal restrictions on workers’ rights to organize, policies from successive governments have contributed to plummeting union membership. By the end of 2022, only 12.5 percent of Australian workers were union members, compared with 41 percent in 1992.

The judiciary is generally independent, though the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), a body that reviews the merits of administrative decisions by government agencies, has historically been stacked with Liberal Party–affiliated individuals installed by previous Liberal-National governments. The Albanese government announced in December 2022 that the AAT would be abolished and replaced with a new merits review body; this had yet to occur as of 2023.

The right to due process is generally respected. Defendants and detainees are presumed innocent until proven guilty and can only be held for 24 hours without being charged for a crime, with exceptions for terrorism cases.

People living in rural areas, and in particular Aboriginal people, face significant barriers when attempting to access the justice system. Judges, lawyers, and prosecutors must be flown into remote communities, with little time to prepare cases or be briefed by clients. Courtrooms are often in ad hoc, repurposed buildings, and lengthy case dockets are a prominent issue. Judges traveling these rural circuits work large caseloads due to understaffing and underfunding, which could impact their health and their court decisions. Significant case backlogs cause individuals to wait years for their cases to be heard, leaving some, like those who have experienced domestic violence, at risk of further harm.

Authorities began allowing court proceedings to be held online during the COVID-19 pandemic that emerged in 2020. The greater flexibility offered by virtual hearings and services has, to a degree, increased access to the justice system in rural areas.

The law provides protection from the illegitimate use of force, and individuals have means to seek redress for violations. Prison conditions mostly meet international standards. However, conditions at numerous juvenile detention centers are substandard. Some children have instead been detained in adult prisons.

First Nations Australians continue to lag behind other groups in key social and economic indicators; suffer higher rates of incarceration; and report routine mistreatment by police and prison officials. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are placed in detention at a rate 22 times higher than that of non-Aboriginal children. In addition, people with disabilities make up almost one-third of the prison population and face harassment and violence in prisons.

Men and women have the same legal rights, and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited. In practice, however, women and LGBT+ people continue to experience employment discrimination and harassment.

Religious exemptions within the Sex Discrimination Act of 1984 allow for the expulsion of students and dismissal of teachers on the basis of their sexual orientation, but these exemptions are rarely invoked.

Australia’s harsh asylum and immigration policies have long faced criticism. However, in November 2023, the High Court of Australia ruled that indefinite detention of noncitizens was unconstitutional. The judgment, which concerned a stateless Rohingya man held in immigration detention, overturned long-standing case law on the legality of indefinite detention, and it triggered the release of approximately 140 detainees. These included asylum seekers who were refused entry into the community for various reasons, including criminal convictions, but who had little chance of being returned to their countries of origin for reasons including statelessness.

In response to concerns about the release of asylum seekers who had been convicted of violent crimes, Parliament hastily passed laws in December 2023 that enabled the preventative detention of those at risk of committing serious violent or sexual offenses, and for whom there is no real prospect of deportation in the reasonably foreseeable future. The new laws were criticized for their swift passage without public consultation and for potentially undermining the spirit of the High Court decision.

Separately, in June 2023 the last asylum seekers were transferred out of offshore detention in Nauru, with some of those previously detained there settled in third countries or moved temporarily to Australia. However, the Australian government entered into an agreement to maintain the detention facilities in Nauru as a contingency for any future arrivals of asylum seekers by boat, and in September it sent 11 new detainees there.

The Labor Party in its 2022 election campaign indicated that it would grant eligible refugees permanent visa status, and abolish Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) and Safe Haven Enterprise Visas (SHEVs), which expired after three years and five years, respectively. Fulfilling that promise, the Albanese government enacted laws that took effect in February 2023, allowing the approximately 19,000 refugees residing in Australia on TPVs to transition to permanent protection visas, granting them social security benefits and a pathway to citizenship.

The government respects freedom of movement, and neither state nor nonstate actors interfere with changes of residence, employment, or institution of higher education.

With an open and free market economy, businesses and individuals enjoy a high level of economic freedom and strong protections for property rights.

The government generally does not restrict social freedoms. Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2017, and same-sex couples have won the right to adopt children in all states and territories.

Gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate-partner violence, remains a national concern, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Women who kill abusers in self-defense have often been jailed, with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women representing the majority of this incarcerated group. In 2022, the New South Wales state parliament passed a law criminalizing coercive control in intimate-partner relationships, with penalties of up to seven years in prison.

New South Wales became the last state to decriminalize abortion in 2019. In some states there is no access to abortion through public health systems despite its legality, forcing residents to seek assistance from private providers.

Residents of Australia generally enjoy robust economic opportunities and freedom from exploitation. However, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face economic hardship; census data from 2016 revealed that employment rates in remote areas had declined since 2006, impeding upward social mobility.

In 2022 and 2023, the government enacted a raft of reforms intended to protect workers’ rights and reduce inequality in the workplace, including laws prohibiting pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts; strengthening obligations on employers to prevent harassment, discrimination, and other risks in the workplace; and increasing pathways for casual workers to transition to permanent employment.

The 2018 Modern Slavery Act required large businesses to be more transparent about potential forced labor in their supply chains and to make efforts to address the problem. While the law has been viewed favorably on the whole, critics have noted that it fails to impose penalties for noncompliance.