Australia
2026
- GOVERNMENT
- federal parliamentary democracy
- CONSTITUTION
- July 9, 1900, in effect from January 1, 1901
- LEGAL SYSTEM
- based on English common law
- LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM
- bicameral, Senate and House of Representatives
- JUDICIAL SYSTEM
- High Court, judges appointed by the Governor-General High Court of Australia, each of the 6 states and 2 territories and Norfolk Island have a Supreme Court. The High Court is the final court of appeal for territorial courts.
RELIGIONS
26% Catholics; 21% Anglicans; 21% other Christians; 1% minorities (including Aboriginals)
From the country
- JULY 17, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Le My Linh, an Australian woman condemned to death...
Le My Linh, an Australian woman condemned to death by a Vietnamese court in 2002 on drug trafficking charges, had her sentence commuted to life imprisonment
- JULY 9, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
"The Bali bombers who murdered my son last October...
"The Bali bombers who murdered my son last October are evil extremists, but they don't deserve the death penalty," Brian Deegan, the Adelaide magistrate farther of one of the victims of the Bali bombing, wrote in The Australian
- MAY 30, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected a call...
Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected a call for the death penalty for terrorists or hijackers
- MAY 3, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer...
Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said that the Bali bombers should not be executed for the nightclub attacks which killed more than 200 people
- APRIL 24, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia was a cosponsor and voted in favour of the...
Australia was a cosponsor and voted in favour of the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- MARCH 8, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Prime Minister John Howard backed executing...
Australian Prime Minister John Howard backed executing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden if he was captured, despite professing to be against the death penalty
- FEBRUARY 16, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that Indonesia...
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said that Indonesia would have Australia's blessing if it imposed the death penalty on anyone convicted of the Bali bombings
- FEBRUARY 10, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty...
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty warned that imposing the death penalty on the Bali bombers would answer their wish to be treated as martyrs
- JANUARY 1, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia is a world leader in seeking the abolition...
Australia is a world leader in seeking the abolition of capital punishment
- JANUARY 1, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The last Australian killed by an Australian judiciary,...
The last Australian killed by an Australian judiciary, Ronald Ryan, was hanged in Melbourne's Pentridge Prison on February 3, 1967
- JANUARY 1, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty was formally abolished in Australia...
The death penalty was formally abolished in Australia in 1985
- JANUARY 1, 2003AustraliaDEATH PENALTY
Australia abolished the death penalty for ordinary...
Australia abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1984 and for wartime crimes in 1985