The Commonwealth of New Lakemba is a gargantuan, genial nation, ruled by The Committee with a fair hand, and renowned for its multi-spousal wedding ceremonies, anti-smoking policies, and stringent health and safety legislation. The compassionate, democratic, cheerful population of 19.616 billion New Lakembans are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, liberal, socially-minded, outspoken government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of New Canberra. The income tax rate is 100%.

The frighteningly efficient New Lakemban economy, worth a remarkable 6,746 trillion New Lakembian Standard Kebabs a year, is highly specialized and mostly made up of the Information Technology industry, with significant contributions from Tourism and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an amazing 343,903 New Lakembian Standard Kebabs, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

A passport is literally priceless, the government believes there is no problem that raising taxes won't fix, troublemakers boast about how many times they have to visit their therapist, and cogitators and mass debaters are skiving off work to hang around the National Symposium Park. Crime is totally unknown. New Lakemba's national animal is the Animal Kingdom, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests.

New Lakemba is ranked 488^th in the world and 26^th in The North Pacific for Lowest Crime Rates, with 198.38 law-abiding acts per hour.