Use the correct form to refer to judges and magistrates

Refer to judges of the following courts as ‘Justice’ and use the title ‘The Honourable’:

• High Court
• Federal Court
• Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia
• supreme courts in the states and territories.

Use the titles ‘Your Honour’, ‘His Honour’ or ‘Her Honour’ for judges of:

• district courts
• county courts.

High Court and Federal Court

Instructions for addressing judges and registrars are at:

Use terminology correctly

Use the term ‘Defence’ when you mean both the Department of Defence and the Australian Defence Force (ADF). ‘Defence’ is used to represent the organisation as a whole.

‘Defence’ has an initial capital when it is part of a formal name or title. Use lower case for generic references.

Always capitalise the titles of current royals

Always use capitals for the title of the current Australian monarch.

The full title of the current monarch of Australia is ‘Charles the Third, by the Grace of God King of Australia and His other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth’.

Use the correct term when referring to diplomats

The title for diplomats depends on what they represent:

• High commissioners represent Commonwealth countries.
• Ambassadors represent non-Commonwealth countries.
• Nuncios represent the Holy See, the governing body of the Roman Catholic Church.

Use initial capitals for the titles of high commissioners, ambassadors and nuncios

Use initial capitals when writing to ambassadors, high commissioners and nuncios.

Use initial capitals for the titles of individual academics and professionals

The academic and professional titles held by individuals usually have initial capitals. This includes honorary titles.

Use lower case if you use a title generically.

Capitalise the titles of the current prime minister and treasurer

Capitalise the titles of the current holders of the positions of:

• Prime Minister
• Treasurer.

Do this even when the titles are abbreviated.

If referencing prime ministers or treasurers generically, use lower case.

Use the standard units of measurement

Australia uses the metric system for most quantities:

Choose between a decimal value or fraction

You can express a less-than-whole number as a decimal or as a fraction.

In text, write decimal values as numerals. Write fractions as words.

Use words instead of symbols to improve accessibility

In most content, explain mathematical relationships using words instead of symbols.

Many people will understand simple operations written with symbols (1 + 1 = 2). But other mathematical relationships are hard to understand unless they are written in words. Symbols might not be available in every font set and the default settings of screen readers might not read all symbols.

Phrases are groups of words with a specific function

A phrase is a group of words that makes sense on its own but doesn’t contain a subject and a verb.

Phrases can only add meaning to a sentence. They can’t stand on their own.

Types of phrases include: