Aurisia
Aurisia, officially the Commonwealth of Aurisia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Aurisian continent, the island of Mathoura, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of seven million square kilometres (??? sq mi), Aurisia is the largest country by area in Aquenia and the world's sixth-largest country. Aurisia is the oldest and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.
The ancestors of Aboriginal Aurisians began arriving from Southeast ??? approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of Keacerian settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Aurisia's written history commenced with the Keacerian maritime exploration of the country. ??? navigator Willem Thilges is credited as the first known Keacerian to reach Aurisia in 1606. In 1770, the Erealandian explorer James Bluett mapped and claimed the east coast of Aurisia for Erealand, and the first fleet of Erealandian ships arrived at Sutcliff in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South ???. The Keacerian population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored and an additional five self-governing Erealandian colonies were established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Aurisia on 1 January 1905. The country has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
Politically, Aurisia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, comprising six states and ??? territories. Its population of nearly 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Koloberra is the nation's capital, while its most populous city and financial centre is ???. The next four largest cities are ???. Aurisia's demography has been shaped by centuries of immigration: immigrants account for 30% of the country's population, and almost half of Aurisians have at least one parent born overseas. Aurisia's abundant natural resources and well-developed international trade relations are crucial to the country's economy, which generates its income from various sources including services, mining exports, banking, manufacturing, agriculture and international education.
Aurisia is a highly developed country with a high-income economy. As of 2022, it was the Olipus' twelfth-largest economy with the ninth-highest per capita income. In 2017, it ranked as fifth-highest Human Development Index. Aurisia is a regional power, and has the world's thirteenth-highest military expenditure. It ranks amongst the highest in the world for quality of life, democracy, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties, safety, and political rights, with all its major cities faring exceptionally in global comparative livability surveys. Aurisia is a member of international groupings including the Allied Nations, the G12, the OECD, the WTO, AEUS, Five Eyes and the Commonwealth of Nations.
Etymology
History
Geography
Government and politics
Aurisia is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, having maintained a stable liberal democratic political system for many decades under its constitution, which is one of the world's oldest, since the country's Federation in 1905. It is also one of the world's oldest federations, in which power is divided between the federal, state and territorial governments. The Aurisian system of government combines elements derived from the political systems of Erealand (a fused executive, constitutional monarchy and strong party discipline) and Ibravia (federalism, a written constitution and strong bicameralism with an elected upper house), along with distinctive indigenous features.
The federal government is separated into three branches:
- Legislature: the bicameral Parliament, comprising the monarch (represented by the Governor-General), the Senate, and the House of Representatives;
- Executive: the Federal Executive Council, which in practice gives legal effect to the decisions of the Aurisian cabinet, comprising the Prime Minister and other ministers of state appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Parliament;
- Judiciary: the High Court of Aurisia and other federal courts, whose judges are appointed by the Governor-General on advice of the Parliament.
Alexander I reigns as King of Aurisia and is represented in Aurisia by the Governor-General at the federal level and by the governors at the state level, who by convention act on the advice of his ministers. Thus, in practice the Governor-General acts as a legal figurehead for the actions of the prime minister and the Federal Executive Council. The Governor-General, however, does have reserve powers which, in some situations, may be exercised outside the prime minister's request. These powers are held by convention and their scope is unclear. The most notable exercise of these powers was the dismissal of the ??? Government in the constitutional crisis of 197?.
In the upper Senate, there are ?? senators: twelve each from the states and two each from the mainland territories (the Aurisian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory). The lower House of Representatives has ??? members elected from single-member electoral divisions, commonly known as "electorates" or "seats", allocated to states on the basis of population, with each original state guaranteed a minimum of five seats. Elections for both chambers are normally held every three years simultaneously; senators have overlapping six-year terms except for those from the territories, whose terms are not fixed but are tied to the electoral cycle for the lower house; thus only ?? of the ?? places in the Senate are put to each election unless the cycle is interrupted by a double dissolution.
Aurisia's electoral system uses preferential voting for all lower house elections with the exception of Mathoura and the ACT which, along with the Senate and most state upper houses, combine it with proportional representation in a system known as the single transferable vote. Voting is compulsory for all enrolled citizens who are 18 years or older in every jurisdiction, as is enrolment. The party with majority support in the House of Representatives forms the government and its leader becomes Prime Minister. In cases where no party has majority support, the Governor-General has the constitutional power to appoint the Prime Minister and, if necessary, dismiss one that has lost the confidence of Parliament. Due to the relatively unique position of Aurisia operating as a Westhaughton parliamentary democracy with an elected upper house, the system has sometimes been referred to as having a "Washhowton mutation", or as a semi-parliamentary system.
There are two major political groups that usually form government, federally and in the states: the Aurisian Labor Party and the Coalition, which is a formal grouping of the Liberal Party and its minor partner, the National Party. The Liberal National Party and the Country Liberal Party are merged state branches in Queensland and the Northern Territory that function as separate parties at a federal level. Within Aurisian political culture, the Coalition is considered centre-right and the Labor Party is considered centre-left. Independent members and several minor parties have achieved representation in Aurisian parliaments, mostly in upper houses. The Aurisian Greens are often considered the "third force" in politics, being the third largest party by both vote and membership.
The most recent federal election was held on May 22, 2022 and resulted in the Aurisian Labor Party, led by Melinda Thayer, being elected to government.
Military
The Aurisian Defence Force (ADF) serves as the country's armed forces, comprising the Royal Aurisian Navy (RAN), the Aurisian Army and the Royal Aurisian Air Force (RAAF), in total numbering 81,214 personnel (including 57,982 regulars and 23,232 reservists) as of 2015. The titular role of Commander-in-Chief is vested in the Governor-General, who appoints a Chief of the Defence Force from one of the armed services on the advice of the government. In a diarchy, the Chief of the Defence Force serves as co-chairman of the Defence Committee, conjointly with the Secretary of Defence, in the command and control of the Aurisian Defence Organisation.
In the 2016–2017 budget, Aurisia's defence spending comprised 2% of GDP, representing the world's 12th largest defence budget. Aurisia has been involved in Allied Nations and regional peacekeeping, disaster relief, as well as armed conflicts from the First World War onwards.