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The executive: the Federal Executive Council, in practice the Governor-
General as advised by the Prime Minister and Ministers of State;
The judiciary: the High Court of Australia and other federal courts, whose
judges are appointed by the Governor-General on advice of the Council.

In the Senate (the upper house), there are 76 senators: twelve each from
the states and two each from the mainland territories (the Australian Capital
Territory and the Northern Territory). The House of Representatives (the

lower house) has 150 members elected from single-member electoral
divisions, commonly known as "electorates" or "seats", allocated to states on
the basis of population. Elections for both chambers are normally held every
three years, simultaneously.

States and territories. Australia has six states – New South Wales
(NSW), Queensland (QLD), South Australia (SA), Tasmania (TAS), Victoria
(VIC) and Western Australia (WA) – and two major mainland territories –

the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT). In
most respects these two territories function as states, but the Commonwealth
Parliament can override any legislation of their parliaments.

Language. Although Australia has no official language, English has
always been entrenched (укріпляти) as the de facto national language.
Australian English is a major variety of the language with a distinctive

accent and lexicon, and differs slightly from other varieties of English in
grammar and spelling. General Australian serves as the standard dialect.
According to the 2011 census, English is the only language spoken in the
home for close to 81% of the population. The next most common languages

spoken at home are Mandarin (1.7%), Italian (1.5%), Arabic (1.4%),
Cantonese (1.3%), Greek (1.3%), and Vietnamese (1.2%); a considerable
proportion of first- and second-generation migrants are bilingual.

Religion. Australia has no state religion. In the 2011 census, 61.1% of
Australians were counted as Christian.
Education. School attendance, or registration for home schooling, is
compulsory throughout Australia. Education is the responsibility of the

individual states and territories so the rules vary between states, but in
general children are required to attend school from the age of about 5 up
until about 16, children aged 16-17 are required to either attend school or

participate in vocational training, such as an apprenticeship [ə’prent s‚ p
–навчання; учнівство].
Australia has 37 government-funded universities and two private

universities, as well as a number of other specialist institutions that provide
approved courses at the higher education level. The University of Sydney is

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