All about Australia

A beautiful country with a unique history. Australia has beautiful cities such as Sydney, while also having beautiful natural areas to endlessly explore, but what is going on in Australia? In this article, we will explain what is currently happening in the country and what the politics are like there.

Australian politics

Back in the days, Australia used to be a colony of England, but this colony was divided into 6 colonies. These 6 states later became a whole united nation thus forming a Commonwealth. Today each state has its own government, judiciary, constitution and government just like in America. These states are New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Together the states in Australia formed a parliament and therefore having a senate where the head of government is the Australian prime minister. In addition, there are two additional states where it is not controlled by any state. Australia is a federal parliamentary democracy as well as a constitutional kingdom. This means that there is a King for Australia, the King of Australia is Charles the third and he currently lives in England with his family. To make a Prime Minister in Australia, a whole process must first be completed. Members of Parliament must then represent a constituency under the voting system Australia uses. Each state is therefore represented by a governor. After this process, elections are finally held and a Prime Minister is elected in Australia.

Australian language

Australia has no official language, but most people in Australia speak English, becoming their mother tongue. The reason for having no official language is because there are also many accents and languages, because of this the government simply didn't want to cause any separation. In addition to the English language, you also have the rest of the languages spoken in Australia. 2.7 percent of them speak Chinese, 1.4 percent speak Arabic, 1.3 percent speak Vietnamese, 1.2 percent speak Cantonese, and 0.9 percent speak Punjabi. In addition to these languages, you also have the Australian Aboriginal languages, these are languages that were spoken in Australia before the colonies existed and Europe has not yet colonized the piece of land. Today there are 52,000 original Australians who can still speak the languages. In total, there are more than 250 types of Aboriginal languages. There is even a language for deaf people in Australia called Auslan.

Religion in Australia

Australia doesn't have an official religion either. It is even forbidden for the government to make a state religion according to  the Australian laws. This law has been set up to go against the banning of religions and to give people freedom in them so that no possible conflicts can arise between cultures and people. In 2021, it was shown that 38.9% of the population have no religion. This is a very large growth compared to the 2015 statistics which only show 15%. Yet the largest religion is Christianity (this is 43.9%). Of these, the largest sect is the Roman Catholic Church which is 20% and 9.8% are the Anglican Church of Australia. The rest of the religions are 3.2 percent Islamic, 2.7 percent Hindu, 2.4 percent Buddhist, 0.8 percent Sikhism, and 0.4 percent Judaism. In addition, there are also the Aborigines who also worship in the natural religion. In total there were 8 thousand in 2015.

Culture in Australia

Australia is known for being a country with many different cultures. This has mostly to do with immigration over the years, from colonization times to today. Most of the people are Anglo-Celtic,, while also having the Aboriginal and many other cultures. This immigration tradition also attracted a lot of immigrants to Australia. In Australia, the Aboriginal people have many stone art pieces that are centuries old. This was called the last great art movement of the 20th century according to the art critic Robert Hughes after its discovery. These pieces of art were made long before the settlers arrived in Australia. Meanwhile, settlers and explorers have even created art pieces about Australia about what this mysterious land might look like when discovered. Australia's first artists are Arthur Streeton and Tom Robers with his students who create paintings based on the founding of the Australian federation from colonization times. This became less popular after the 19th century when people started looking for other art styles. Modernists such as Margaret Peterson found a new artistic trend and changed the art trend because of it. Yet landscape art continued to be made by the Aboriginal water artist, Albert Namatjira.

Australian Food

Before the settlers, the Aborigines lived a primitive life of hunting and gathering, usually eating a unique type of berry called Bush Tuckers. After the settlers came and founded cities, they also brought the British and Irish dishes. Like the Fish and Chips and the Steak Pie which the Australians have copied and named the Australian Meat Pie. The import of coffee has also helped Australia economically. The discovery of coffee led them to create their own type of coffee called Flat White. The Australians have also taken over many meals of the Cantonese Chinese, such as the dumplings and the spring rolls and many other meals. In addition, Australia is a major exporter of wine. This is because the Australians brew their own type of wine that became widely popular. Most Australian wine is produced in the south of the country where it is just cool enough.

Australian Sports

Cricket is a unique sport that is a bit like handball. This is a sport that is most played and widely popular in Australia.This sport that has also been taken over from the English. Cricket is usually played in the summer and winter months. They have drawn up their own rules for this and even a few states even have different rule sets. In addition to sports, Rugby is the second most famous sport in Australia and in third place is Voelbal, which is also played quite often in Australia.

There's a lot to learn about Australia, from the history of the country to the food Australians make there. Having a unique history with immigration and bringing together cultures for which they would like to be known for. A beautiful holiday destination to go to for the food, landscape and art that have been made by the Aborigines since prehistoric times.