Military service age and obligation:
16 years of age for voluntary service (2001)
Manpower available for military service:
males age 16-49: 4,943,676 (2005 est.)
Manpower fit for military service:
males age 16-49: 4,092,717 (2005 est.)
Manpower reaching military service age annually:
males: 142,158 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure:
$16.65 billion (2004)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
2.7% (2004)
Transnational Issues Australia
Disputes - international:
East Timor and Australia continue to meet but disagree over how to
delimit a permanent maritime boundary and share unexploited
petroleum resources that fall outside the Joint Petroleum
Development Area covered by the 2002 Timor Sea Treaty; East Timor
dispute hampers creation of a revised maritime boundary with
Indonesia (see also Ashmore and Cartier Islands dispute); regional
states express concern over Australia's 2004 declaration of a
1,000-nautical mile-wide maritime indentification zone; Australia
asserts land and maritime claims to Antarctica (see Antarctica); in
2004 Australia submitted claims to UNCLOS to extend its continental
margin from both its mainland and Antarctic claims
Illicit drugs:
Tasmania is one of the world's major suppliers of licit opiate
products; government maintains strict controls over areas of opium
poppy cultivation and output of poppy straw concentrate
This page was last updated on 20 October, 2005