Final answer:
Australia's government is a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, while Pacific island nations have diverse government forms from democracies to traditional chiefdoms. The Pacific islands face major environmental concerns and have economies that increasingly rely on tourism. Differences in governance are influenced by colonial history, geographical features, and levels of development.
Step-by-step explanation:
The governments of Australia and the Pacific islands share some similarities in that many have elements of democratic governance. However, they also exhibit significant differences due to various factors like colonial history, level of development, and cultural influences. Australia operates under a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy, sharing its head of state with the United Kingdom, while Pacific island nations vary greatly in governance structures, ranging from democracies to traditional chiefdoms.
The Pacific islands are divided into three main regions: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Traditional methods of making a living on the Pacific islands include subsistence agriculture, fishing, and, in some areas, crafts or tourism. A clear distinction is made between low islands, typically coral atolls with scant resources, and high islands, which are volcanic and more suitable for agriculture. The United States governs many Pacific islands partly due to its strategic victories in World War II.
The environmental concerns for these islands include climate change, rising sea levels, and pollution. Tourism has been growing as a sector of their economies. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area in Kiribati is the largest protected environmental marine habitat in the world. The United States, Great Britain, and France used some islands, such as the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia, and Christmas Island, for testing nuclear weapons, which has had lingering environmental and health impacts.
New Guinea, specifically Papua New Guinea, is noteworthy for having over seven hundred languages due to its diverse tribal groups and isolation between communities. The economic activities of the Pacific are heavily influenced by their geographical isolation, natural resources, and external political ties.