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Australian websites ends with .AU and are often prefixed with .com, .gov .net and .info.

For example: Google.com.au is the Australian version of Google.com. Australia.gov.au is the Australian Government website. ABC.NET.AU is the Australian site for the ABC public broadcasting corporation.

Facts About Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the mainland of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous other islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
 

Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor, and Papua New Guinea to the north, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia to the northeast, and New Zealand to the southeast. Australia is the only single country to occupy an entire continent.

Australia has a generally prosperous, Western-style mixed economy, with a per-capita GDP slightly higher than that of the UK, Germany, and France in terms of purchasing power parity. The country was ranked third in the United Nations 2007 Human Development Index and sixth in The Economist worldwide quality-of-life index 2005.

The emphasis on exporting commodities rather than manufactures has underpinned a significant increase in Australia's terms of trade during the rise in commodity prices since the start of the century. Nevertheless, Australia has the world's fourth-largest current account deficit in absolute terms (in relative terms it is more than 7% of GDP).

 

The Hawke Government floated the Australian dollar in 1983 and partially deregulated the financial system. The Howard government followed with a partial deregulation of the labour market and the further privatisation of state-owned businesses, most notably in the telecommunications industry. The indirect tax system was substantially changed in July 2000 with the introduction of a 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST), which has slightly reduced the reliance on personal and company income tax that characterises Australia's tax system.

In January 2007, there were 10,033,480 people employed, with an unemployment rate of 4.6%. Over the past decade, inflation has typically been 2–3% and the base interest rate 5–6%. The service sector of the economy, including tourism, education and financial services, constitutes 69% of GDP.

Although Agriculture and natural resources constitute only 3% and 5% of GDP, respectively, they contribute substantially to export performance. Australia's largest export markets are Japan, China, the US, South Korea and New Zealand.
 

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