Rowan and Foolestroupe: Thank you so very much for the information. I think I've got part of it. I can see I need to do a little more research. It seems to me that the form of government in Australia is somewhat more complicated that in the US. The one thing I envy above all other things is the fact that you have multiple parties. Here we basically have two parties, if one party takes a postition on an issue, the other party takes the opposite position--all other points of view are ignored.
                            It's maddening.
          I heard on an NPR broadcast that the Greens were positioned to do well in the recent election, and I was encouraged by that. It doesn't seem to have happened, however, so I think I'll need to do a little more research.
          Regarding Pauline Hanson, she has become somewhat of an icon in the US for people who are concerned about runaway immigration. There are two camps, however, for whom this issue is most important. There seems to be a consevative group whose rants on the issue really do border on racism, and there is another group who worry about the overwhelming numbers of people. There are a number of Greens and environmentalists in the latter group.