Setting up a partnership in Australia is relatively easy and affordable. A partnership must have its own ABN and must lodge its own tax return, but the partnership itself is not taxed. It is the partners who are responsible for paying the taxes. Profits and losses are shared among the partners.
The downside is that the partners are personally liable for their own and for each other's actions. In other words, they share the liability just as they share the profits and losses.
Partnerships are governed by the laws of the State or Territory in which they were founded.