Australia–United Kingdom relations

Relations exist between the Commonwealth realms of Australia and the United Kingdom, marked by historical, cultural, institutional, extensive people-to-people links, aligned security interests, sporting tournaments (notably The Ashes), and significant trade and investment co-operation.

History

In 1770, Royal Navy Lieutenant James Cook, during his first voyage to the Pacific, sailed along and mapped the east coast of Australia, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. Seventeen years later, following the loss of its American colonies in 1783, the British Government sent a fleet of ships, the First Fleet, under the command Arthur Phillip, to establish a new penal colony in New South Wales. A camp was set up and the flag raised at Sydney Cove on 26 January 1788, and the British Crown Colony of New South Wales was formally promulgated on 7 February 1788. Further Crown Colonies were established in Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania) in 1803; Swan River Colony (now known as Western Australia) in 1828; South Australia in 1836; Victoria in 1851; and Queensland in 1859. The six colonies federated in 1901 and the Commonwealth of Australia was formed as a Dominion of the British Empire.

Australia fought alongside Britain and its Allies in World War I, notably at Gallipoli (against the Ottoman Empire) and the Western Front. It fought with Britain and its allies again in World War II, protecting Britain's Pacific colonies from Imperial Japan.

Until 1949, Britain and Australia shared a common nationality code. The final constitutional ties between the United Kingdom and Australia ended in 1986 with the passing of the Australia Act 1986.

Formal economic relations between the two countries declined following Britain's accession to the European Economic Community in 1973. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom remains the second largest overall foreign investor in Australia. In turn, Australia is the seventh largest foreign direct investor in Britain.

Due to Australia's history as a colony of Britain, the two nations retain significant shared threads of cultural heritage, many of which are common to all English-speaking countries. English is the de facto language of both nations. Both legal systems are based on the common law.

''Pom'' is a common nickname given by Australians to British people, said in jest without malice or prejudice, in a similar way to how British (and other) people call Australians ''Aussies'', and refer to Australia as "Oz" or "down under" (a reference to the fact that Australia is notable for being entirely in the southern hemisphere).

In June 2021, the countries agreed on a historic free trade agreement, which was signed on 17 December 2021.

Migration

Streams of migration from the British Isles to Australia played a key role in Australia's development, and the people of Australia are still predominantly of British or Irish origin (See: Anglo-Celtic Australians). According to the 2011 Australian Census, around 1.1 million Australians were born in Britain, despite the last substantial scheme for preferential migration from Britain to Australia ending in 1972.

Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard was born in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. The former leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and former prime minister Tony Abbott was also born in Britain, although to an Australian-born mother.

There is a population of around 100,000 Australians in Britain, especially in Greater London.

In recent years there has been growing support for the idea of freedom of movement between the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand with citizens able to live and work in any of the four countries - similar to the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement between Australia and New Zealand. The Australia–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement includes increased freedom of movement between the two countries.

Military

The two countries have a long history of close collaboration in military affairs. In modern times they are members of the AUSCANNZUKUS security cooperation including the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance with the US, Canada and New Zealand, and the Five Power Defence Arrangements with Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand. They also collaborate in ad hoc groupings like Combined Task Force 151 to counter piracy off Somalia, and the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in 2014. Australia shared the British honours system until 1975, and so four Australians were awarded the Victoria Cross in the Vietnam War despite Britain not participating. Australia created its own VC in 1991, made from the same block of metal as the British ones.

On 15 September 2021, the leaders of the U.S., the UK and Australia announced AUKUS a trilateral security pact for the Indo-Pacific region that will "promote deeper information and technology sharing" and "foster deeper integration of security and defense-related science, technology, industrial bases, and supply chains". The pact "will significantly deepen cooperation on a range of security and defense capabilities" including "to support Australia in acquiring nuclear-powered submarines for the Royal Australian Navy". This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under a Attribution 4.0 International licence.

Diplomacy

The contemporary political relationship between London and Canberra is underpinned by a robust bilateral dialogue at head-of-government, ministerial and senior officials level. As Commonwealth realms, the two countries share a monarch, King Charles III, and are both active members within the Commonwealth of Nations. In 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair became the first British head of government to address the Australian Parliament.

Australia maintains a High Commission in London. The United Kingdom, in turn, maintains a High Commission in Canberra.

In September 2012, the UK and Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding on diplomatic cooperation, with the intention of extending the scheme to include Australia and New Zealand.

After the UK voted to leave the European Union in July 2016, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull phoned British Prime Minister Theresa May to float the idea of a free trade agreement between the two nations post-Brexit. Australia was one of the first nations to publicly express interest in such an agreement after the vote. The Australian Prime Minister has also suggested that an immigration and commercial accords could be negotiated with the two nations and New Zealand. Proposed closer ties and preferential visa access between Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada named '' CANZUK'' has been argued for by numerous individuals in both countries for several years.

;Gallery

File:Australia House - geograph.org.uk - 680485.jpg, Australia House, home of the High Commission of Australia, London.
File:British High Commission in Canberra.jpg, The British High Commission in Canberra.
File:AUKMIN press conference 2015.jpg, The Australia - UK Ministerial (AUKMIN) press conference in Sydney, February 2015.

Sport

Australia excels in many sports that originate in England, and the two countries enjoy a close sporting rivalry. The rivalry is typified by their Test cricket series for The Ashes; there were ticker-tape parades when England won the 2005 series after 18 years of Australian domination. The finest moment of the England rugby union team was beating Australia to win the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Sydney; their rugby league counterparts have been far less successful. The two countries usually vie for leadership of the medal table at the Commonwealth Games. In 2014 England came top with 174 medals and Australia second with 137 medals. Melbourne golfer Peter Thomson is the second-most successful at The Open Championship with 5 wins. The two share a similar rivalry at the Olympic Games: throughout the latter half of the 20th century, Australia was the more successful, finishing above Britain at all but three Olympic Games between 1956 and 2012, the nadir occurring in 1996 when Australia finished in 7th place and Great Britain finished in 36th place. Australian tennis players have been particularly successful in the men's doubles at Wimbledon with pairings such as Mark Woodforde and 9-time winner Todd Woodbridge; Rod Laver, John Newcombe and Margaret Court all won multiple singles titles at Wimbledon but no British player has won the Australian Open since 1934.

Culture

There is a long history of cultural exchange between the two countries, and Australians often use Britain as a stepping-stone to international success, whether these are artists such as Barry Humphries or businessmen such as Rupert Murdoch who controls flagship newspapers such as ''The Times'' and has a large stake in pay-TV company BSkyB. Australian soap operas became particularly popular in the late 1980s and 1990s, with ''Neighbours'' commanding British daily audiences of 19 million in 1990 although this declined to 5 million by 2007, still nearly ten times the Australian audience. Soap alumni such as Kylie Minogue, Dannii Minogue and Jason Donovan have continued to have successful careers in music and on the stage in Britain, while ''Neighbours'' has even been held responsible for introducing the rising inflection to England. Australian comedians have thrived in the UK, from Clive James

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