Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states. The terms of this contract are embodied in the Australian Constitution, which was drawn up at a Constitutional Convention and ratified by the people of the colonies at referendums. The Australian head of state is the Queen of Australia who is represented by the Governor-General of Australia, with executive powers delegated by constitutional convention to the Australian head of government, the Prime Minister of Australia.
Hawke Government
The Hawke Government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1983 to 1991. The Government followed the Liberal-National Coalition Fraser Government and was succeeded by another Labor administration, the Keating Government, led by Paul Keating after an internal party leadership challenge in 1991. Keating served as Treasurer through much of Hawke's term as Prime Minister and the period is sometimes termed the Hawke-Keating Government despite the fact that there were fundamental differences between the two men and their policies.