Australian Marine Conservation Society Carly Angell University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Australia is a unique country full of different species of both land and sea creatures that are a part of its extremely diverse ecosystem. The Australian Marine Conservation Society, formally known as the Queensland Littoral Society, has worked for decades to defend the Great Barrier Reef against things like coral mining, oil drilling, overfishing, etc. It is also the only national charity in Australia that only works toward protecting the ocean wildlife. Without this nonprofit, who knows what would become of the Great Barrier Reef and its surrounding habitats. But before I talk about this extremely amazing nonprofit, a brief history on Australia will be given. Australia’s government is a variety of different governments from other countries such as British and U.S. governments. They have a Liberal Democratic government. Australia has one of the oldest democracies in the world. There are very little nonprofit organizations that are entirely dependent on government funding. All nonprofits are exempt from income tax, and depending on their activity, many nonprofits are exempt from paying other taxes such as fringe benefits tax, sales tax, and rates. Nonprofits play a very important role in the economy, society, and political system. Although they do help the social and political systems, it is far easier to measure the economic contributions. There is still a lot that is not known about the Australian nonprofit organizations. Australia has a very similar culture to the U.S., so there isn’t much to tell about it other than the fact that they have way more kangaroos that we do. It is a multicultural nation with over 23 million people. “There is however, no segregation between people that have different incomes or backgrounds. Men and women are also