Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand (1983: Doomsday)

Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday
OTL equivalent: Commonwealth of Australia, Realm of New Zealand, Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia

Flag Coat of Arms Location of ANZC, ANZ, CANZ
Capital	Jervis Bay
Largest city	Sydney
Other cities	Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Melbourne, Newcastle; Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington; Apia, Majuro
Language   official	English (official)
others	Maori, Samoan, Marshallese, Kosraen, Ponpeic and Turkic languages, Australian Aboriginal languages, Yumplatok
Governor-General	Helen Winkelmann
Population	32,450,000 in all CANZ areas, 2020 census
Independence	1997
Currency	Commonwealth dollar ($)
Organizations	Oceanic Organisation

The Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand (also called ANZ, the ANZC, the CANZ, or the Commonwealth) is a union of Australia and New Zealand together with other islands across Oceania. It began during World War III with the strengthening of ANZUS, a military alliance of Australia, New Zealand, and the American Provisional Administration (APA), the USA's emergency government in the Pacific. The ANZUS allies steadily strengthened political, economic, and administrative ties until the APA collapsed, leaving Australia and New Zealand as the sole leading members. The ANZC appropriated America's surviving military assets and some of its territories, while Alaska, Hawaii, and Belau became tied to the Commonwealth through treaties of free association.

Through its network of associated states, the ANZC's sphere of influence extends across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, taking in much of Oceania. It is the leading power of the Oceanic Organisation, which formalizes the cooperation among the ANZC and its affiliates in diplomatic, military, environmental, cultural, and other matters.

In the 21st century, the ANZC is considered one of the world's major powers. It has been instrumental in the creation of several of the post-Doomsday global institutions like the WCRB and the League of Nations.

History

See main article: History of the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand

Members and Territories

The ANZC spans a large part of the Pacific Ocean. Its members, territories, and associated states vary in their status and their relation to the Commonwealth government.

Integral territory

These regions are part of the Commonwealth proper. They each have self-government and send members to the ANZC Parliament.

Members

The full members are the backbone of the Commonwealth, fully represented in Parliament and fully bound to comply with its laws, treaties and acts.

• Australia
• New Zealand

Associate Members

These smaller states are considered fully part of the Commonwealth, but due to their much smaller size they have a different status. They each have one member in the Commission and are represented in the House of Representatives according to their very small population. On the other hand, they have increased autonomy and are exempt from some defined categories of acts of the ANZ Parliament.

• Samoa
• Micronesia

Capital Territory

The capital territory was created in 1997 to serve as a neutral location for the Commonwealth institutions. It is represented in Parliament in the same way as the Associate Members but is bound by all acts of Parliament, like the full members.

• Jervis Bay

External territories

These islands have limited or non-existent local self-government. Some have very small populations or are used as military outposts. The Commonwealth has little to no actual control over many of the uninhabited islands and has so far been unable to enforce its claim over the Cocos.

• Ashmore and Cartier Islands
• Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Dependency (claimed)
• Chatham Islands
• Cocos Islands (disputed)
• Heard Island and McDonald Islands (claimed)
• Kermadec Islands
• Marcus Island
• Miscellaneous Islands (claimed)

Associated states

The associated states are closely connected to the ANZC through Treaties of Free Association, whose terms vary. Some of the treaties predate Doomsday and were made with New Zealand, but most are more recent. Through the Oceanic Organisation (formed in 2015), the group of states has a joint identity and opportunities for deliberation and joint decisions.

Non-Self-Governing

These islands are considered to be in free association but delegate all of their foreign policy to the Commonwealth, along with some other aspects of policymaking. They are not considered fully independent and do not have seats in the League of Nations.

• Norfolk Island (1995)
• Pitcairn Islands (1999)
• Tokelau (2001)

Self-Governing

These states are considered independent nations who have formed close relationships with the Commonwealth. The ANZC has no role in their government but has been delegated supervisory authority over certain areas, most often defense. Most are members of the League of Nations.

• Alaska (1995)
• Belau (1995)
• Cook Islands (1995)
• East Timor (2014)
• Hawaii (1995)
• Kiribati (1999)
• The Maldives (2005)
• Nauru (1998)
• Niue (1995)
• Papua New Guinea (2003)
• Tuvalu (1995)
• Vanuatu (2007)
• The Yukon (2004)

Former territories

In the 90s and part of the 2000s, the Commonwealth made claims of one kind or another to the island of Okinawa, the Panama Canal Zone, and the British Indian Ocean Territory. Those claims have since been dropped.

From 2006 to 2013, the ANZC jointly occupied the Cape of Good Hope along with forces from the South American Confederation. The provisional regime was called the RZA; it is now independent as the Republic of Good Hope.

Important cities

The destruction of Perth, Cairns, Darwin, and Alice Springs left a vacuum in some regions of Australia. Their surrounding regions experienced depopulation in the 80s and 90s as survivors sought opportunities in other cities. Since then, Western Australia has rebounded somewhat, though the Northern Territory remains vacant even compared to its pre-Doomsday state.

Sydney and Auckland are the de facto capitals of business, sport, music and culture. The Australian cities of Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide have also risen in stature over the years thanks to ANZ's status as a world power. The largest numbers of migrants from the United States, Europe, Asia, Papua, and northern and western Australia have resettled in these six cities.

Adelaide, in South Australia, has a population of 1.3 million. Adelaide is home to numerous governmental and financial institutions and is noted for its many festivals; sporting events; its food, wine and culture; its long beach fronts; and its large defense and manufacturing sectors.

Auckland, on the North Island of New Zealand, has a population of 1.4 million. It is noted for its cultural and leisure activities, and its port is the third-most active port in the region behind Brisbane's and Singapore's.

Brisbane, located in Queensland, with a population of just under 2 million, is the third-largest city in the ANZC and its leading cultural and business area. The Port of Brisbane is the nation's most important port. Darling Downs processes grain and livestock from western Australia for consumers in the eastern half.

Canberra - the Australian capital, located in New South Wales - has also grown due to the delibrate encouragement of immigration. Its population is just over 740,000, a sizable minority being Papua New Guineans and Asians who resettled there for business, work and/or school.

Other cities have also become prominent since Doomsday, none more so than Jervis Bay. In 1997, its location along the Pacific Ocean and the government's desire to have a capital more easily accessible than Canberra led to Jervis Bay being designated as the new capital. The government's full transition to Jervis Bay took ten years and was completed in 2007. The national government operates completely out of Jervis Bay today, and incentives have helped pushed the area population to just over 200,000.

Bunbury, designated as a refugee center after Doomsday, has taken Perth's place as the key city in western Australia. Its population is currently 500,000, including sizable American, British and Chinese communities.

Newcastle is another town designated for refugees post-Doomsday to remove some of the pressure from Sydney. The city of 600,000 serves as one of the Commonwealth's most important ports and industrial hubs (including its steel works).

Geelong was designated as the refugee center for the state of Victoria. The city of 600,000 has emerged as a major port and industrial centre.

Other important cities in the ANZC include Gold Coast, Queensland; Hobart, Tasmania; and Christchurch, New Zealand (which was severely damaged by an earthquake on September 4, 2010, and farther damaged by another earthquake on February 22, 2011 with numerous fatalities). The main cities in Samoa are Apia and Pago Pago; in Micronesia they are Palikir, Majuro and Weno.

Government and politics

Organization

Government in the ANZC takes place at four levels.

The highest level is the Commonwealth level. The member nations have delegated many areas of their sovereignty to the the ANZC. Above all, the Commonwealth has a combined military and combined foreign service. Member nations are protected not by separare militaries, but by the branches of the Commonwealth Armed Forces. The ANZC has a single foreign service and is represented by a single ambassador in most foreign delegations. Members have the limited ability to send ambassadors individually - largely to international organisations rather than to embassies in individual countries. The self-governing Associated States all have independent foreign services, but in general ANZ diplomats are accredited to represent their interests in countries where they have no embassy. The ANZC shares powers with the member states in such areas as economic and trade policy; for example, it regulates the common currency and establishes joint rules on trade.

The next level is that of the member nations, that is, the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Micronesia, and Samoa. Each governs its own political and economic affairs and has authority over internal security within their own borders.

The third level is the federal states. This applies to Australia, Micronesia, and Samoa; New Zealand is not federalized. Australia has an asymmetrical federalism in which the states have broad autonomy over various areas of policy, while the territories are subject to a greater level of control from the Australian government. Micronesia is comprised of six states, while Samoa has two federal units, Western and Eastern (formerly American) Samoa.

Finally there is the local level, consisting of regions, cities, villages, and other units. Forms of local government vary widely across the member nations.

Politics

At the federal level, the ANZC is dominated by three strains of political thought: Conservative, Labour and Green. These are in fact coalitions of local parties which go by different names in the different nation-states of the Commonwealth.

Political parties of the ANZC

Federal	Conservative	Labour	Green
Australia	Liberal Party	Australia Labor Party	Australian Greens
New Zealand	National Party of New Zealand	New Zealand Labour Party	Green Party of Aotearoa
Samoa	Liberal Party of Samoa	Human Rights-Labour Party	Fanua Party

At the local and state levels, political parties do not exist in most of Micronesia, though they are not banned. Political allegiances depend mainly on family and island-related factors. Only the Marshall Islands has a fully developed system of parties, and there the three national coalitions compete with the Marshallese Independence Party (MIP), which advocates secession from Micronesia and from the ANZC. At the federal level, many (but not all) candidates for the presidency, the Senate, and the national Parliament are supported by one of the national coalitions, or by the MIP. Samoa likewise has a strong tradition of non-partisanship.

As a result of the influx of immigrants into the Commonwealth since Doomsday, a number of nationalist parties were founded by politicians who feared that Australia and New Zealand would lose their cultural identity. Some of these parties have been represented in the national parliaments, but their fortunes have risen and fallen over the years. For some periods, this strain of thought has been represented by wings of the Conservative parties rather than by separate parties. Currently the separate anti-immigrant parties have considerably more representation in national and state parliaments than in the parliament of the ANZC.

Executive branch

The Governor-General is the head of state who exercises the supreme executive power of the Commonwealth. The functions and roles of the Governor-General include appointing ANZ ambassadors and ministers, giving assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and bestowing honours. The Governor-General is Commander-in-Chief of the ANZC military and also the symbolic head of state for both Australia and New Zealand.

The title of Governor-General is a carryover from the offices of the same title formerly part of the Australian and New Zealand governments. There, the respective governor-generals represented the monarch, who lived in Great Britain. This royal office evolved into the current one in the late 1990s. Australia had already replaced its royally-appointed GG with one chosen by Parliament, and New Zealand's Labour government agreed to merge the two offices.

The Governor-General is elected every three years in a rather complex process by the national legislatures of all four ANZC members and associate members. The associate members, unlike Australia and New Zealand, also have their own heads of state, the President of Micronesia and Chief of State of Samoa.

The Commonwealth's executive power is carried out by the Secretary General, Cabinet, and Secretariat. They are responsible to Parliament; despite the title, the Secretary General serves the same function as a prime minister in any other parliamentary system. The Secretariat is the collective name of all the government departments, which ultimately report to the Cabinet and the SG.

Parliamentary branch

The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand, also known as the Commonwealth Parliament, is the ANZC's legislative branch. It is bicameral, largely modeled in the Westminster tradition, but with some influences from the United States Congress.

The lower house, the House of Representatives, currently consists of 250 members, who represent districts known as electoral divisions (commonly referred to as "electorates" or "seats"). The number of members is not fixed but can vary with boundary changes resulting from electoral redistribution, which are required on a regular basis.

Radio broadcasts of the former Australian Parliamentary proceedings began on 10 July 1946. They were originally broadcast on ABC Radio. Since August 1997 they have since been broadcast on ANZBC NewsRadio and its affiliates throughout the ANZC. ABC is a government owned network of radio stations that exist solely for broadcasting Parliamentary proceedings. It operates 24 hours a day and broadcasts other news items when parliament is not sitting.

The upper house is called the Commission. It descends directly from the Commonwealth's earliest days when it operated more like an intergovernmental organisation. Commissioners are still chosen by their respective national governments. Their numbers are fixed by the Commonwealth's constitutional treaties: 5 for Australia, 4 for New Zealand, and 1 each for the associate members and the Capital Territory. The commission is meant to be a check on the preponderant size of Australia.

Judicial branch

The only court operating at the Commonwealth level is the Constitutional Court, whose purview is limited to matters that touch on the treaties that formed the Commonwealth and their subsequent amendments. It is also fairly new, dating only to 2012. All other judicial authority is left to the respective member nations. The member and associate member nations have coordinated efforts in regards to cases that extend beyond the national level to the "Commonwealth level". Some continue to advocate for a more robust system of Commonwealth courts.

The ANZC military has its own courts, subject to itself and the Commonwealth government.

International relations

The ANZC is a founding member of the League of Nations and sits on the organization's High Council.

The ANZC has a formal sphere of influence consisting of its Associated States, which are joined together as the Oceanic Organisation. In addition, several smaller nations around the Pacific and Indian Oceans could be said to be part of an informal ANZ bloc. These include Tonga, the French Pacific, Mauritius, Fiji, and a few others. These countries are neutral but depend on the ANZC economically and maintain friendly relations with it. Some of them also participate in the Oceanic Organisation either as observers or members of some agencies.

One of the most significant and complex relationships is with the South American Confederation. The two blocs are often described as the world's number-one and number-two great powers. In the 90s and early 2000s, as this dynamic was first taking shape, the two blocs came to consider themselves rivals and came close to clashing where their spheres overlapped. This culminated in 2005 with tension over the Panama Canal; after this was resolved peacefully, the two managed to adopt a more cooperative relationship. They worked together to establish the RZA, the Municipal States of the Pacific, and ultimately the League of Nations itself. Competition has continued, however, in the economic sphere and in regional issues like ongoing conflicts in India.

Military

The ANZAF roundel

See main article: Commonwealth Armed Forces

The CAF was first established by order of ANZUS in 1989 to serve Australia, New Zealand, and the territories under the American Provisional Administration. The CAF have increased in size since Australia and New Zealand unified, in order to meet the CANZ's global commitments as the heir to the USA.

Sports

Sport throughout Australia, New Zealand and Oceania was suspended for a time after Doomsday, but not for long. Sport was deemed necessary by the Australian and New Zealand governments to maintain morale, even at a limited level. By the time the Commonwealth came into existence, professional and amateur competition in each of the various sports had fully resumed, and two new leagues - the then-American Football gridiron league, and the Australian Rugby League, had been formed.

In some sports, Commonwealth sends a single team to international competitions, while in others the constituent nations send separate teams. For example, in association football/soccer, the Commonwealth competes as one side. In rugby union, Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea have their own federations, while the various nations and islands of Oceania (including Tonga) compete under their own federation; Samoa has its own federation, and has been allowed by the Commonwealth Rugby Board to include players from the Free State of Hawaii. In ice hockey, Australian and New Zealand players compete under the ANZC banner, while Alaska has its own national federation.

Commonwealth athletes competed in the 2010 winter Olympics and 2012 summer Olympics as one entity, similarly to Great Britain pre-Doomsday. In later Games, Australia and New Zealand began to field separate teams. The member nations have always remained separate for the Oceanic Games and Oceanic Winter Games.

By sport

Australian Rules Football suffered severe setbacks in the aftermath of the nuclear attacks on Australia. Supporters throughout Australia fought to keep the sport alive, and it has resurfaced as a popular sport in the ANZC. The Australian Football League is the sanctioning body of the sport and is headquartered in Canberra. Its franchises are located in:

• Adelaide (Adelaide Crows, Port Adelaide Power)
• Auckland (Auckland Hawks)
• Brisbane (Brisbane Bears)
• Bunbury (West Coast Eagles)
• Canberra (Canberra Captains)
• Geelong (Geelong Cats)
• Gold Coast (Gold Coast FC)
• Hobart (Tasmanian Devils)
• Jervis Bay (Jervis Bay Penguins)
• Melbourne (Melbourne Demons)
• St. Kilda (St. Kilda Saints)
• Sydney (Sydney Swans)
• Western Bulldogs

Second-tier leagues exist in each of the Australian states, as well as in New Zealand and Hawaii.

Rugby union has a storied history in both Australia and New Zealand. While rugby league is set up on the AFL/American football franchise model, rugby union's top domestic competitions are set up by state and associated territories, as seen in the annual Super 12 competition, comprised of:

1. New South Wales (Sydney)
2. Victoria (Melbourne)
3. Queensland (Brisbane)
4. Western Australia (Bunbury)
5. South Australia (Adelaide)
6. Tasmania (Hobart)
7. Jervis Bay Capital Territory
8. New Zealand North (Auckland)
9. New Zealand South (Christchurch)
10. Samoa
11. Tonga
12. Fiji

The ANZC sends three sides, Australia, New Zealand and Samoa/Hawaii to compete in the Six Nations Series against Argentina, Fiji and Tonga. There has been discussion about expanding the series by inviting sides from Singapore, Uruguay, and/or the former South Africa.

Club competitions are lower profile than their counterparts in league and the AFL, but exist in every state, governed by their respective state's sanctioning body for union. In 2004, the CRB (Commonwealth Rugby Board) professionalized the sport as to allow for better competition with rugby league for players.

Rugby league, with roots as the preferred rugby code in New South Wales and Queensland, has taken off in the last decade due to the more-open, free-flowing style of play and the fact that the Australian Rugby League was willing to pay its players and, subsequently, was prevailing in competition with union for players through the early 2000's. The de facto sanctioning body for the sport, in the ANZC and worldwide, is the Australian Rugby League (ARL). The ARL was established in 1995 and is headquartered in Auckland. The league is based on a franchise model - like the old National Football League gridiron league in America and its successor, the Oceanic Football League. The franchises are:

• Auckland (Auckland Warriors)
• Brisbane (Brisbane Broncos)
• Canberra (Canberra Raiders)
• Gold Coast (Gold Coast Titans)
• Hobart (Tasmania Tigers)
• Jervis Bay (Capital Kangaroos)
• Melbourne (Melbourne Storm)
• Newcastle (Newcastle Knights)
• Papua New Guinea (PNG Rangers)
• Sydney (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
• Townsville (North Queensland Cowboys)
• Wellington (Southern Orcas)

There is talk of expansion to Singapore, Fiji and/or Samoa by 2016.

Association football (soccer) is rapidly growing in popularity, especially among youth. The Football Federation of the ANZC (FFANZ) was formed in 2004 after a reorganization of the previous overseeing domestic body, Soccer ANZC. The FFA formed a domestic league, the A-League, in 2005. It operates the league which, unlike leagues in other countries built on a pyramid model (several levels of leagues with promotion and demotion), is franchise-based (this is under review, as the Asian Football Federation has requested that FFANZ change to a pyramid model). The current franchises are:

• Adelaide (Adelaide United)
• Brisbane (Brisbane Roar)
• Bunbury (Western Glory)
• Gold Coast (Gold Coast United)
• Newcastle (Newcastle Jets)
• Townsville (North Queensland Fury)
• Sydney (Sydney Victory)
• Wellington (Wellington Phoenix)

Association football's popularity has been boosted by the national side's success in qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in the Celtic Alliance. Some observers believe in the far future, association football will become the dominant code in the country.

Cricket is the favored summer sport in the ANZC. The national cricket teams of Australia and New Zealand play a Test Match series with matches in Brisbane, Melbourne (Boxing Day), Canberra (New Year's), Wellington and Christchurch. The ANZC cricket board is in discussions with its counterparts in South Africa, the Celtic Alliance, East Caribbean Federation and India about restarting Test Matches and one-day international matches. Because of the logistical issues involved, such matches will not take place until 2013 at the earliest.

Regional cricket leagues exist ;in every state in Australia and in New Zealand, and there is discussion of expansion into Samoa and Hawaii.

Basketball, at the men's and women's adult levels, has had some success in recent years. A men's domestic premier league exists, with eight clubs playing in the large cities. But average attendance is around 2500 per match, and Basketball ANZC (the sport's sanctioning body) faces an uphill battle in building basketball as a major national sport.

ANZC athletes are approaching world-class status in several Olympic sports, such as swimming and track and field.

The most popular women's sports include association football, basketball and netball. The national netball league, the ANZ Championship has drawn crowds upward of 12,000 spectators.

American football has gained longevity and popularity as a niche sport within the ANZC, its growth fueled by expats and refugees from the United States. The Oceanic Football League was founded in Samoa in 1991 as the American Football League, to tie it to the sport of American football and to distinguish the league from the Australian rules and rugby codes. Teams from across the Commonwealth and its associated states participate, located in:

• Adelaide Rams
• Auckland Raiders
• Brisbane Cowboys
• Melbourne Colts
• Newcastle Giants
• Pago Pago Dolphins
• Sydney Bears
• Tasmania Browns

American football has certainly not surpassed the traditional sports of Australia and New Zealand, but it has become an important niche sport. After much discussion amongst owners, the AFL approved a name change to the Oceanic Football League in a hastily arranged owners meeting in mid-December 2009. The next month, the owners voted to maintain the league headquarters in Pago Pago but revisit bids from Auckland and Canberra in 2011.

The OFL also is seeking to build ties with recently discovered gridiron leagues in the former United States, as well as to help sponsor the construction of a new Professional Football Hall of Fame in Green Bay, Superior.

During the 1980s and early 1990s it looked as if baseball would join American football as a popular niche sport in Australia. The Australian League was formed in 1986 with six teams, and lasted until 1995. The Claxton Shield, the AL's successor, lasted from 1997 to 2002. Today, baseball is played at an amateur and youth level by Australian enthusiasts and the children of expatriate Americans; the ANZC Baseball Federation governs the sport, most particularly the ANZC's participation in international competition. Supporters are not optimistic about the sport reaching the level of popularity and participation as American football, much less the other football codes.

The highest-drawing sports in 2008 were the Australian Football League (36,000 per match), the Super 12 (21,000), the ARL (16,000), the A-League (13,000), the American Football League (12,000) and the ANZ Championship (8500).

In accordance with the Remembrance Act of 1995, no sporting events of any kind are played in the Commonwealth on the 26th of September.

Culture

Ethnic culture

The islands of Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand are home to many Aboriginal people. These people are different from the Whites in every way from religion, one of which is "dreamtime", to clothing and language. Many of these aboriginals, unlike the Native Americans have preserved their culture and way of living.

Music

The most popular forms of music include adult contemporary, lite rock, electronica, folk, punk, country and a genre known as "Christian praise". The American diaspora has been influential in the redevelopment of the national music scene, particularly in the country and adult contemporary fields.

The ANZC has produced several of the world's most popular music acts. One of them is Keith Urban, from Brisbane, the leading adult contemporary/pop star in the country. Another is Darren Hayes, formerly of the pop duo Savage Garden, and now in the midst of a solid solo career. Silverchair and The Griffin's Doom are among the top rock acts in the world.

Many of the performing-arts companies throughout the ANZC receive some form of government assistance, although fund-raising is also an important part of their budgets. Each state in Australia has its own symphony; opera in Australia and New Zealand is governed by Opera ANZC.

The famed Sydney Opera House, after years of neglect, completed a major refurbishment in late August 1997 and reopened with much fanfare two weeks before Christmas. Great care was taken to replicate the famed opera house as much as possible. The home for numerous concerts and performances of classical music, opera, and pop and rock music, the Opera House is considered an important cultural symbol for the entire Commonwealth, linking its pre-Doomsday past with its post-Doomsday future.

Media

Radio/television

Radio and television broadcasting within Australia and New Zealand is governed by the ANZC Broadcasting Authority, an organization jointly created by the Australian and New Zealand governments after the Commonwealth was established in 1995.

The official state network is the Australia-New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (ANZBC), which was created from the merger of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation.

It is state-funded but enjoys editorial and programming autonomy, and competes with a host of privately-owned broadcasters, including Capital Radio Network; SBS; and Star FM. ANZBC also operates affiliates in all associated territories. The ANZBC competes with the Seven and Nine Networks and SBS (also publicly owned) for viewers.

ANZBC has affiliates in all of the Commonwealth's associated states, and includes SBS programming in those areas; Seven and Nine provide network and syndicated programming for stations known as "Channel Two" in associated states. All Australian networks also syndicate programming throughout Asia, Europe and North America and in select parts of Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, Siberia and South America.

The Australian government operates an Australian Broadcasting Channel for government purposes; the ANZBC provides similar services for the New Zealand, Samoan and Micronesian governments, giving those respective governments total editorial and programming control (as mandated by law) while providing equipment and studios.

Cable services are available in Australia and New Zealand.

ANZBC Radio

The ANZBC operates numerous local radio stations, in addition to seven national networks and international service Radio ANZC.

ANZBC Local Radio' is the Corporation's flagship radio station in each broadcast area. There are 66 individual stations, each with a similar format consisting of locally presented light entertainment, news, talk back, music, sport and interviews, in addition to some national programming such as AM, PM, The World Today, sporting events and Nightlife.

ANZBC Radio National broadcasts more than 60 special interest programs per week covering a range of topics including music, comedy, book readings, radio dramas, poetry, science, health, the arts, religion, social history and current affairs.

ANZBC NewsRadio, previously known as the Parliamentary and News Network, is a rolling news service. The service was established to broadcast federal parliamentary sittings, to relieve the local Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio affiliate from this intermittent task, and to provide a news service at other times. The network broadcasts news on a 24/7 format with updates on the quarter-hour. Much of its news content is produced by the ANZBC itself. Some programming comes via tape from the Celtic Alliance's RTE network.

ANZBC Concert FM came from the merger of ABC's Classic FM and Radio New Zealand's Concert network. It broadcasts classical music and opera, along with regular news updates. Its format borrowed heavily from community stations that eventually founded the Fine Music Network in Australia, as well as the BBC Radio 3 radio station in the former United Kingdom.

Triple J is the national youth radio network, and broadcasts contemporary alternative and independent music; it is targeted at people aged 18–35. While the network plays music from around the world, it has a strong focus on local artists.

Dig Music is aimed at fans of popular music from PNG, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines.

ANZBC Jazz carries different styles of jazz music.

ANZBC Country broadcasts country and western music, including pre- and post-Doomsday varieties from America.

ANZBC Television

Within Australia and New Zealand, the ANZBC operates four channels.

ANZBC1, the Corporation's primary television service, receives the bulk of funding for television and shows first-run comedy, drama, documentaries, and news and current affairs. In each state and territory a local news bulletin is shown at 7:00 PM nightly.

ANZBC2 shows repeated programs from ABC1, as well as some original content including news programs, children's shows, animation, and music shows.

A children's channel, named ANZBC3, launched in December 2009.

ANZBC4, also known as News24, is a free-to-air news dedicated channel.

SBS, Seven, Nine commercial television networks

The Special Broadcasting Service is a multilingual hybrid-funded public service broadcaster whose purpose is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and New Zealanders and, in doing so, reflect Australia-New Zealand's multicultural society". SBS television is funded both by the commonwealth government and commercials; commercial breaks are limited to five minutes per hour, as opposed to the fifteen minutes per hour permitted on fully commercial stations.

Seven Network, though initially damaged by wartime flooding in Sydney and other disruptions, was able maintain service while launching new stations in Auckland and Wellington. Seven is currently the second-largest network in the country in terms of population reach.

Nine Network, meanwhile,was the first commercial network to expand to New Zealand. Today, the Nine Network is the second highest-rated television network in ANZC, behind the Seven Network, and ahead of ANZBC TV and SBS TV.

New Zealand had no commercial television networks prior to the merger, enabling existing networks to easily expand into the nation. SBS owns all it's television stations and syndicates it's programming to public stations in associated states, while Seven and Nine maintain affiliation agreements with various regional networks in the Commonwealth, and "Channel Two" stations in associated states.

Other commercial radio

• Capital Radio
• SBS radio
• Star FM
• other commercial broadcasters

Print

Australia greatly depended on the newspapers in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, and Adelaide to spread news and information after Doomsday, and since then they have become important sources of news and opinion in the region. Auckland and Jervis Bay's papers have joined that group.

Space exploration

Launch of the ANZC-1 in 2000

The Australian aeronautical facility of Woomera was destroyed on Doomsday. However, more than 13 years after Doomsday, the newly formed ANZC saw space exploration and, more importantly, the launching of communications satellites as a vital part of future faster coordination between itself and other nations. Thus, Parliament spent significant funds to build the Cape York Space Center and make it an important hub of space exploration. The first test rocket was launched in 2000 and was simply called the ANZC-1, while some time later the ANZC-2, was launched on the newly developed rocket payload system called the "Kiwi"

Since January 12, 2009, the facility is officially under LoNASO jurisdiction, while the CYSC Prohibited Area remains under ANZC jurisdiction as it is a matter of national security.

The site was most recently used to launch the third and fourth GLONASS satellites into orbit, the "James Cook" and the "Tasmanian devil", respectively. These were the first satellites of the network not to be launched from Siberia.