The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Australia's Constitution.
The Australia Act 1986 is the short title of each of a pair of separate but related pieces of legislation: one an Act of the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia, the other an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. In Australia they are referred to, respectively, as the Australia Act 1986 (Cth) and the Australia Act 1986 (UK). These nearly identical Acts were passed by the two parliaments, because of uncertainty as to whether the Commonwealth Parliament alone had the ultimate authority to do so. They were enacted using legislative powers conferred by enabling Acts passed by the parliaments of every Australian state. The Acts came into effect simultaneously, on 3 March 1986.
Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians have rights and interests to their land that derive from their traditional laws and customs. The concept recognises that in certain cases there was and is a continued beneficial legal interest in land held by Indigenous peoples which survived the acquisition of radical title to the land by the Crown at the time of sovereignty. Native title can co-exist with non-Aboriginal proprietary rights and in some cases different Aboriginal groups can exercise their native title over the same land.
Yarralumla is a large inner south suburb of Canberra, the capital city of Australia. Located approximately 3.5 km (2.2 mi) south-west of the city, Yarralumla extends along the south-west bank of Lake Burley Griffin from Scrivener Dam to Commonwealth Avenue.
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government is made up of three branches: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial.
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a system of federalism in Australia. The colonies of Fiji and New Zealand were originally part of this process, but they decided not to join the federation. Following federation, the six colonies that united to form the Commonwealth of Australia as states kept the systems of government that they had developed as separate colonies, but they also agreed to have a federal government that was responsible for matters concerning the whole nation. When the Constitution of Australia came into force, on 1 January 1901, the colonies collectively became states of the Commonwealth of Australia.
WorkChoices was the name given to changes made to the federal industrial relations laws in Australia by the Howard government in 2005, being amendments to the Workplace Relations Act 1996 by the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, sometimes referred to as the Workplace Relations Amendment Act 2005, that came into effect on 27 March 2006.
The states and territories are administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing polities with incomplete sovereignty and their own constitutions, legislatures, departments, and certain civil authorities that administer and deliver most public policies and programs. Territories can be autonomous and administer local policies and programs much like the states in practice, but are still constitutionally and financially subordinate to the federal government and thus have no true sovereignty.
The Native Title Act 1993(Cth) is a law passed by the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is "to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land management system". The Act was passed by the Keating government following the High Court's decision in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992). The Act commenced operation on 1 January 1994.
The monarchy of Australia is Australia's form of government, embodied by the Australian sovereign and head of state. The Australian monarchy is a constitutional one, modelled on the Westminster system of parliamentary government, while incorporating features unique to the constitution of Australia.
Foreign relations date back to 1807, when the Russian warship Neva arrived in Sydney as part of its circumnavigation of the globe. Consular relations between Australia and the Russian Empire were established in 1857. Diplomatic relations between Australia and the Soviet Union were established in 1942, and the first Australian embassy opened in 1943.
The Constitution of Australia is a constitutional document that is supreme law in Australia. It establishes Australia as a federation under a constitutional monarchy and outlines the structure and powers of the Australian government's three constituent parts, the executive, legislature, and judiciary.
The World Heritage Properties Conservation Act 1983, was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which provided for certain protections for World Heritage listed places.
The Perth Agreement was made in Australia in 2011 by the prime ministers of what were then the sixteen states known as Commonwealth realms, all recognising Elizabeth II as their head of state. The document agreed that the governments of the realms would amend their laws concerning the succession to their shared throne and related matters. The changes, in summary, comprised:
The Succession to the Throne Act, 2013, which has the long title An Act to Assent to Alterations in the Law Touching the Succession to the Throne, was passed by the Parliament of Canada to give assent to the Succession to the Crown Bill, which was intended to change the line of succession to the British throne and was passed with amendments by the UK Parliament on 25 April 2013. Bill C-53 was presented and received its first reading in the House of Commons on 31 January 2013 and received royal assent on 27 March of the same year. The act was brought into force by the Governor General-in-Council on 26 March 2015.
The Marriage Equality Act 2013 was an act of parliament of the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly that was intended to legalise same-sex marriage in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). It was first presented to the ACT Legislative Assembly on 19 September 2013 by the ACT Attorney-General, Simon Corbell. The law intended to build on the existing recognition of same-sex unions in the Australian Capital Territory, which included recognition of de facto partners, civil partnerships and same-sex-only civil unions. The act was passed in the Legislative Assembly on 22 October 2013. It came into operation on 7 November although wedding ceremonies under the provisions of the Act did not occur until 7 December 2013.
Mario Dešpoja is a Croatian Australian who opened an unofficial Croatian embassy in Australia's capital city, Canberra in 1977. The embassy was on a main road and attracted much publicity until it was closed down two years later.
The Migration Act 1958(Cth) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that governs immigration to Australia. It set up Australia’s universal visa system (or entry permits). Its long title is "An Act relating to the entry into, and presence in, Australia of aliens, and the departure or deportation from Australia of aliens and certain other persons."
Central Australia was a territory of Australia that existed from 1927 to 1931. It was formed from the split of the Northern Territory in 1927 alongside the territory of North Australia, the dividing line between the two being the 20th parallel south. The two territories were merged in 1931 to reform the Northern Territory. The seat of government of the territory was Stuart, a town that was commonly known as "Alice Springs" and would be officially renamed so in 1933.
The Embassy of Russia in Australia is the Russian embassy in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. It is located at 78 Canberra Avenue, Griffith, to the east of the Manuka shopping precinct.
