The current government of Australia is composed of the Liberal-National Coalition, a centre-right party alliance. The current prime minister is Malcom Turnbull of the Liberal Party, who took office in September 2015. Mr Turnbull replaced Tony Abbott, the former leader of the Liberal Party. The Liberal‑National Coalition has been in power since 2013, when it replaced the Australian Labor Party led by Kevin Rudd. The next federal election will be held between August 2018 and May 2019.
Australia is a prosperous country with 26 years of uninterrupted economic growth. Projected GDP growth for 2018 is 2.8% (OECD, 2017c), above the OECD average of 2.1%. GDP per capita is also well above the OECD average; average household income per capita and average earnings are among the highest in the OECD (OECD, 2016). Living standards and well-being are also high. However, socio‑economic gaps for Australia’s indigenous community and gender gaps persist.
Public debt and public spending in Australia remain below the OECD average (OECD, 2017a).1 Fiscal deficits have been declining in recent years and the current government has a target of reaching a budget surplus of 0.4% of GDP by 2020/21. Government expenditure of 37.2% of GDP is below the OECD average of 40.9% of GDP (OECD, 2017b).
Challenges include high greenhouse gas emissions and an ageing population (OECD, 2017a). Following a long commodity boom, recent fluctuations in commodity prices have slowed recent Australian growth. Price fluctuations have affected the mining sector in particular, long an engine of Australia’s economic growth (OECD, 2017a: 2).
The population of Australia is 24.5 million people, of whom 28.5% were born overseas in nearly 200 different countries. Almost half of the people living in Australia today are either migrants or children of migrants.2