Politics
The Australian Commonwealth is a constitutional democracy, and the government is run as a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government - much the same as the UK. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia, although executive powers lie with the Governor-General (who represents the Queen) and the Prime Minister. Practically though, it is the Prime Minister who holds the real power.
Australia has two major political groups, the Australian Labour Party who are in power today, and the Coalition which is a grouping of two smaller parties (the Liberal Party and the smaller National Party). The current Prime Minister is Kevin Rudd, who succeeded John Howard and his Coalition party on 3rd December 2007.
Read more about the Australian Government.
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