Australian Constitution in the context of "Elections in Australia"

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) is an act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and culturally significant places. Enacted on 16 July 2000, it established a range of processes to help protect and promote the recovery of threatened species and ecological communities, and preserve significant places from decline. The act is as of September 2024 administered by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. Lists of threatened species are drawn up under the act, and these lists, the primary reference to threatened species in Australia, are available online through the Species Profile and Threats Database (SPRAT).

As an act of the Australian Parliament, it relies for its constitutional validity upon the legislative powers of the Parliament granted by the Australian Constitution, and key provisions of the act are largely based on a number of international, multilateral or bilateral treaties. A number of reviews, audits and assessments of the act have found the act deeply flawed and thus not providing adequate environmental protection.

The politics of Australia operates under the written Australian Constitution, which sets out Australia as a constitutional monarchy, governed via a parliamentary democracy in the Westminster tradition. Australia is also a federation, where power is divided between the federal government and the states. The monarch, currently King Charles III, is the head of state and is represented locally by the governor-general, while the head of government is the prime minister, currently Anthony Albanese.

The country has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system under its Constitution, the world's tenth oldest, since Federation in 1901. Australia largely operates as a two-party system in which voting is compulsory. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated Australia a "full democracy" in 2023.

Constitutional conventions in Australia are significant meetings that have debated the Australian Constitution. The first two gatherings debated Federation and what form of Constitution to adopt, while the following conventions debated amendments to the document.

The draft Constitution that was the final product of the first two conventions was approved at referendum in 1899 and 1900 by a 72% "Yes" vote on a 58% turnout. There have been four of the latter conventions post Federation, but no constitutional proposal from these has been approved by referendum, and those put to referendum (proposals from the 1942 and 1998 conventions) were soundly defeated, reaching no more than 46% approval on 90% to 96% turnout.