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A continent is one of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven regions are: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia. Variations with fewer continents may merge some of these, for example some systems include Eurasia or America as single continents.
Humans love to be able to classify everything into compartments, and in order to do this with the world, we have decided to omit Australia and make Oceania the seventh continent.
Australia is a country and by naming it a continent, we forget about all of the surrounding ocean countries.
By naming the continent Oceania, we include Australia as well as all of its neighbouring island countries. Although it does not meet the definition of a continent, as long as we all agree that it is a continent, then we make all of our lives a little easier.