Australia (FW)

The Southern Cross Alliance is a personal union between Australia and New Zealand. Its based off that of The Baltic Union. It established itself as a parliamentary monarchy, with the Monarch being in the United Kingdom. Both countires joined on 2011 May 1st.

History
Durning the 1990's religious groups in Southern Australia gained Indpendence from the Commonwealth, which was allowed by Labour for reasons of seeing future return back into Australia.

Durning World War III, Australia and New Zealand both assisted the Commonwealth of Nations to defeat the Yarphese Republic, but with the Treaty of Beira caused Australia to lose a large portion of one of its Northern Province. This lead to its more tighting ties with New Zealand. Australia joined the Organization of Independent States with a strong controll from the Liberal Party to keep good ties with the Yarphese Republic, Labour lost the vote not to join the OIS.

New Zealand and Australia both signed the Treaty of Auckland to form the Southern Cross Alliance to create one united government from Australia and New Zealand on May 1st, 2011.

Economy
Southern Cross has a market economy with high GDP per capita and low rate of poverty. The Australian dollar is the currency for the nation, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu. After the 2006 merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange is now the ninth largest in the world

In January 2007, there were 10,033,480 people employed, with an unemployment rate of 5.1%.[ Youth unemployment (15–24) rose from 8.7% to 9.7% over 2008–2009.[ Over the past decade, inflation has typically been 2–3% and the base interest rate 5–6%. The service sector of the economy, including tourism, education, and financial services, accounts for about 70% of GDP.Although agriculture and natural resources account for only 3% and 5% of GDP respectively, they contribute substantially to export performance. Australia's largest export markets are Japan, China, the US, South Korea, and New Zealand.Australia is the world's fourth largest exporter of wine, in an industry contributing $5.5 billion per annum to the nation's economy

Geography
Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in Southern Cross Alliance reaching a height of 3,754 metres (12,316 ft).It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination