States and territories of Australia

State	Abbreviation	Capital
New South Wales	NSW	Sydney
Queensland	QLD	Brisbane
South Australia	SA	Adelaide
Tasmania	TAS	Hobart
Victoria	VIC	Melbourne
Western Australia	WA	Perth

See also: Bank State Branch#List of State codes

[edit] Territories

[edit] Mainland

Territory	Abbreviation	Capital
Australian Capital Territory	ACT	Canberra
Jervis Bay Territory	JBT
Northern Territory	NT	Darwin

From 1926 to 1931, Central Australia existed as a separate territory between the 20th and 26th parallels of latitude, before being reincorporated into the Northern Territory.

[edit] External

Australian external territories

[edit] Former

Territory of North Australia (1927-31)
Territory of Central Australia (1927-31)
Territory of Papua (1902-49)
Territory of New Guinea (1920-49)
Territory of Papua and New Guinea (1949-72)

[edit] Background and overview

The states originated as separate British colonies prior to Federation (in 1901). Their powers are protected by the Australian constitution, and Commonwealth legislation only applies to the states where permitted by the constitution. The territories, by contrast, are from a constitutional perspective directly subject to the Commonwealth government. The Australian Parliament has powers to legislate in the territories that it does not possess in the states.

Most of the territories are directly administered by the Commonwealth government, while three (the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory and Norfolk Island) administer themselves. In the self-governing territories the Australian Parliament retains the full power to legislate, and can override laws made by the territorial institutions, which it has done on rare occasions. For the purposes of Australian (and joint Australia-New Zealand) intergovernmental bodies, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory are treated as states.

Furthermore, the distribution of powers between the Commonwealth and the territories is different from that between the Commonwealth and the states. In the Northern Territory, the Commonwealth retains the power to directly administer uranium mining and Aboriginal lands - powers which it does not possess with respect to the states.

Each state has a Governor, appointed by the Queen, which by convention she does on the advice of the state Premier. The Administrators of the Northern Territory and of Norfolk Island are, by contrast, appointed by the Governor-General. The Australian Capital Territory has neither a Governor nor Administrator, but the Governor-General exercises some powers that in other jurisdictions are exercised by the Governor of a state or Administrator of a territory, such as the power to dissolve the Legislative Assembly.

Each state has a bicameral Parliament except Queensland, which abolished its upper house in 1922. The lower house is called the Legislative Assembly, except in South Australia and Tasmania, where it is called the House of Assembly. Tasmania is the only state to use proportional representation for elections to its lower house; all others elect members from single member constituencies, using the alternative vote. The upper house is called the Legislative Council, and is generally elected from multi-member constituencies using proportional representation. The three self-governing territories, the ACT, the Northern Territory and Norfolk Island, have unicameral Legislative Assemblies.

The head of government of each state is called the Premier, appointed by the state's Governor. In normal circumstances the Governor will appoint as Premier whoever leads the party or coalition which exercises control of the lower house (in the case of Queensland, the only house) of the state Parliament. However, in times of constitutional crisis, the Governor can appoint someone else as Premier. The head of government of the self-governing internal territories is called the Chief Minister. The Northern Territory's Chief Minister, in normal circumstances whoever controls the Legislative Assembly, is appointed by the Administrator.

[edit] Comparative terminology

Entity	Executive	Head of Government	Upper House of Parliament	Lower House of Parliament	Member of Parliament*
Australia	Governor-General	Prime Minister	Senate	House of Representatives	Senator	MHR
New South Wales	Governor	Premier	Legislative Council	Legislative Assembly	MLC	MLA
Victoria			Legislative Council		MLC	MLA
Queensland			Abolished (1922)		None	MP
South Australia			Legislative Council	House of Assembly	MLC	MHA
Tasmania				House of Assembly		MHA
Western Australia				Legislative Assembly		MLA
Australian Capital Territory	Chief Minister	Chief Minister	None		None
Northern Territory	Administrator	Chief Minister	None		None
*Note: The abbreviation MP is an acceptable, and indeed more common term for members of each lower house.

[edit] State governors and territorial administrators

Main article: Governors of the Australian states

Post	Appointee	Appointed
Governor of New South Wales	Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO	March 2001
Governor of Victoria	His Excellency Professor David de Kretser AC	April 2006
Governor of South Australia	Her Excellency Mrs Marjorie Jackson-Nelson AC CVO MBE	November 2001
Governor of Queensland	Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC	July 2003
Governor of Tasmania	His Excellency the Hon William Cox AC RFD ED	December 2004
Governor of Western Australia	His Excellency Dr Ken Michael AC	October 2005
Administrator of the Northern Territory	Mr Ted Egan AO	October 2003
Administrator of Norfolk Island	The Hon Grant Tambling	November 2003
Administrator of Christmas Island	The Hon Neil Lucas PSM	January 2006
Administrator of Cocos (Keeling) Islands	The Hon Neil Lucas PSM	January 2006

[edit] Premiers and Chief Ministers of states and territories

Main article: Premiers of the Australian states

Post	Appointee	Political party	Appointed
Premier of Queensland	The Hon Peter Beattie MP	ALP	June 1998
Premier of Victoria	The Hon Steve Bracks MLA	ALP	October 1999
Chief Minister for the Northern Territory of Australia	Ms Clare Martin MLA	ALP	August 2001
Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory	Mr Jon Stanhope MLA	ALP	November 2001
Premier of South Australia	The Hon Mike Rann MHA	ALP	March 2002
Premier of Tasmania	The Hon Paul Lennon MHA	ALP	March 2004
Premier of New South Wales	The Hon Morris Iemma MLA	ALP	August 2005
Premier of Western Australia	The Hon Alan Carpenter MLA	ALP	January 2006

[edit] State and territorial parliaments

Main article: Parliaments of the Australian states and territories

[edit] State and territory police forces

Main article: Law enforcement in Australia

[edit] Statistics

State/territory	Land area (km²)	Rank	Population (2004)	Rank	Population density (/km²)	Rank	% of population in capital	Rank
Australian Capital Territory	2 358	8th	324 300	7th	137.53	1st	99.6%	1st
New South Wales	800 642	5th	6 760 000	1st	8.44	3rd	63%	5th
Victoria	227 416	6th	5 002 300	2nd	22	2nd	71%	4th
Queensland	1 730 648	2nd	3 919 500	3rd	2.26	5th	46%	7th
South Australia	983 482	4th	1 537 900	5th	1.56	6th	73.5%	2nd
Western Australia	2 529 875	1st	1 998 400	4th	0.79	7th	73.4%	3rd
Tasmania	68 401	7th	484 000	6th	7.08	4th	41%	8th
Northern Territory	1 349 129	3rd	200 800	8th	0.15	8th	54%	6th

[edit] State and territory codes

State/Territory	Callsigns			Postcodes	Telephone area codes	Time zone
State/Territory	AM/FM	TV	Amateur	Postcodes	Telephone area codes	Std	Summer
Australian Capital Territory	1xx(x)	xx(x)Cn	VK1xx	02nn*, 26nn, 29nn	02	+10	+11
New South Wales	2xx(x)	xx(x)Nn	VK2xx	1nnn*, 2nnn	02	+10	+11
Victoria	3xx(x)	xx(x)Vn	VK3xx	3nnn, 8nnn*	03	+10	+11
Queensland	4xx(x)	xx(x)Qn	VK4xx	4nnn, 9nnn*	07	+10
South Australia	5xx(x)	xx(x)Sn	VK5xx	5nnn	08	+9½	+10½
Western Australia	6xx(x)	xx(x)Wn	VK6xx	6nnn	08	+8	+9
Tasmania	7xx(x)	xx(x)Tn	VK7xx	7nnn	03	+10	+11
Northern Territory	8xx(x)	xx(x)Dn	VK8xx	08nn	08	+9½
External Territories
Norfolk Island	2xx(x)		VK9xx	(NSW)	+672 3	+11½
Christmas Island				(WA)	(WA)	+7
Cocos Island				(WA)	(WA)	+6½
Australian Antarctic Territory	none		VK0xx	(Tas)	+672 1	+6 to +8
Macquarie Island	none		VK0xx	(Tas)	+672 1	+10	+11
* used for PO box and Large Users only

[edit] See also

ISO 3166-2:AU, the ISO codes for the states and territories of Australia.
Australian states by Gross State Product
Proposals for new Australian States
List of regions in Australia
Provinces and territories of Canada (for comparison)

[edit] External links

v • d • e States and territories of Australia
States and mainland territories	Australian Capital Territory · New South Wales · Northern Territory · Queensland · South Australia · Tasmania · Victoria · Western Australia · Jervis Bay Territory
External territories	Ashmore and Cartier Islands · Australian Antarctic Territory · Christmas Island · Cocos (Keeling) Islands · Coral Sea Islands · Heard Island and McDonald Islands · Norfolk Island

v • d • e Politics of Australia
Commonwealth	Parliament · House of Representatives · Senate · High Court · Federal Court · Queen · Governor-General · Prime Minister · Cabinet · Executive Council
Federal elections	1901 · 1903 · 1906 · 1910 · 1913 · 1914 · 1917 · 1919 · 1922 · 1925 · 1928 · 1929 · 1931 · 1934 · 1937 · 1940 · 1943 · 1946 · 1949 · 1951 · 1954 · 1955 · 1958 · 1961 · 1963 · 1966 · 1969 · 1972 · 1974 · 1975 · 1977 · 1980 · 1983 · 1984 · 1987 · 1990 · 1993 · 1996 · 1998 · 2001 · 2004 · 2007
States and territories and elections	ACT (2004 election) · NSW (2007 election) · NT (2005 election) · QLD (2006 election) · SA (2006 election) · TAS (2006 election) · VIC (2006 election) · WA (2005 election)
Political parties	Australian Democrats · Australian Greens · Australian Labor Party · Family First Party · Liberal Party of Australia · National Party of Australia

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/t/a/States_and_territories_of_Australia_07c2.html"

States and territories of Australia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] States and territories of Australia

[edit] States