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Research Essay on Democracy and Citizenship in Australia “Australia is an excellent example to the world of a democracy which values the participation of its citizens in all levels of government. Discuss” In this essay I will examine the development of Australian society and subsequent rights given to Australian citizens, thus addressing the guiding question as quoted at the top of the paper. Australia is run by a democratic system at all 3 levels of government (Federal, State and Local). Democracy means in Greek “rule by the governed”.
A democrary has key fundermentals that sustains that type of leadership. In a perfect democracy every citizen has equal accessible amount of power and freedom. In Australia everyone Australian citizen over the age of 18 has a single vote to elect persons seeking election to the relevant level of government. This is one great example to the world community of fair rights and freedom. Although a prime minister governs Australia, their power is indirectly only accessible through the people’s vote
Australia has grown since the first settlement on the Indigenous lands, we have created states and territories, education for our people and developed a safe community for people to live in. We have grown as a community and we have embraced our culture from this land and from the migrants to the country. In the beginning there were conflicts between the British and Indigenous people as the settlers occupied their traditional territory. This occupation issue has been festering over the years and has resulted in land claims similar to what has happened in Canada.
From convicts to well educated and harmonious citizens we have become one of the most respected and multi-cultural communities, unlike other countries where there is discrimination of other cultures or totalitarian regimes in power. These along with lack of education are major reasons that lead to conflict and subsequent war within a country. In Australia we embrace our multicultural society and advertise this as an advantage for migrants to come to our country to boost our declining birth rate and ageing demographics. Being an Australian citizen you have guidelines and responsibilities that you ave to follow they are: – Obey the laws and fulfil your duties as an Australian citizen – Enrol on the Electoral Register and vote at federal, state, territory and local government elections and referendums – Serve on a jury, if called upon – Defend Australia, should the need arise From these guidelines you have to respect the law, vote for your leader, become a concerned citizen and defend your country if it is needed. These rights express the freedom and voice that you have in Australia. If an unelected leader ruled you, you wouldn’t have these rights and freedoms, which Australian citizens have.
The powers of the federal government are outlined in the constitution. The constitution also outlines the role of States, Judiciary and the Governor-General. This constitution can only be altered by a majority of the states having a majority of voters approving the proposed law, only 1 alteration to the constitution has happened in over 100 years and that was the granted of suffrage to the aborigines. Comparing the Australian system to another country with a totalitarian regime ruling for example in China, there is an estimated 500,000 people that are currently enduring punishment without charge or trial.
Whereas in Australia you would go through court to be judged by a jury to receive the punishment required (This is exemplified by the detaining of David Hicks in Guantanomo Bay without a trial, even though he may have committed serious crimes, he should have at least had a fair and proper trial shortly after his arrest). There has been harassment, house arrest and abuse of human rights in China due to protests against the government, an issue that Australia does not face. Another interesting comparison is Fiji a place I have visited. Whilst there I noticed the non-integration of the Fijians and Indians.
Consequent to this there is always tension between the two races and that is why there have been many coops over the years. The army has too much power and is able to topple the government, a situation that would be intolerable in Australia. The main issues facing Australia in 2008 are the distribution of wealth, positioning Australia for globalisation, the poor socio-economic status of our indigenous people and subsequent poor health and living condition of the indigenous people, the ageing of Australia and subsequent global warming and its subsequent impacts on the economy and the ecology.
With the distribution of wealth, the government has introduced welfare to work measures and due to this and the robust economy 600,000 people have returned to work from welfare in the last 10 years. People on Centrelink payments are basically living day to day and need more money to be able to live a reasonable life style. The downside of this booming economy and persons working is the affordability of housing being an all time low. With globalisation Australia is finding a great proportion of manufactured goods being made in China. In addition our Call Centres are being staffed by more and more overseas staff (mainly Indians).
Australia is lucky to be endowed with abundant resources, but this employs very few people. Due to the high cost of our labour market compared with 3rd world countries we need to continually establish niche industries that require highly educated people. The Howard government introduced a taskforce to tackle the problems faced by indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory Emergency Response was primarily initiated to give the aboriginal children a better and safer future. It is early days on this initiative, but this may be a starting point in addressing this imbalance in our society.
Australia like many 1st world countries is experiencing an ageing workforce. Couples are having fewer children and later in their life, to assist couples the government has introduced a Baby Bonus payment, increase Child Care payments and has an immigration policy targeted to supplement the declining birth rate. This essay has outlined all the current positive aspects of Australian society, but we need to address the future and the sustainability of our environment for our grandchildren. The federal government is addressing this issue by introducing a carbon-trading scheme.
This carbon trading scheme, where the tax on carbon producing goods and services go into a positive influence on the environment, for example planting trees. The Australian government is following leads by other countries in this circumstance. Australia may have its problems e. g Obesity problems, homeless persons, cost of housing. But these pale into insignificance when compared with issues faced by countries with civil wars and health epidemics (such as Aids in Africa). Australians give money to overseas charities, a great example of this was the tsunamis experienced South East Asia.
Following this catastrophic event the Charity Organisations were inundated with money. In addition the Federal Government gives substantial sums of money to our Pacific neighbours. Australia although not a power on the world stage can impose a lot of influence in the Pacific Islands. Australia is a far from perfect country but through a democratic system anyone of voting age can do things to address the problems that they see as an important issue. This can be illustrated by the election of the Rudd government on its environmental and workplace relations’ platform.
The Howard government argued that without India and China aboard any carbon trading scheme would not work. They are probably right in this issue, so the Rudd government needs to set up a fair and equitable trading scheme and find some way on imposing a carbon tax on any goods and services we get from countries that do not have a scheme in place. Research Essay on Democracy and Citizenship in Australia “Australia is an excellent example to the world of a democracy which values the participation of its citizens in all levels of government.
Discuss” In this essay I will examine the development of Australian society and subsequent rights given to Australian citizens, thus addressing the guiding question as quoted at the top of the paper. Australia is run by a democratic system at all 3 levels of government (Federal, State and Local). Democracy means in Greek “rule by the governed”. A democrary has key fundermentals that sustains that type of leadership. In a perfect democracy every citizen has equal accessible amount of power and freedom.
In Australia everyone Australian citizen over the age of 18 has a single vote to elect persons seeking election to the relevant level of government. This is one great example to the world community of fair rights and freedom. Although a prime minister governs Australia, their power is indirectly only accessible through the people’s vote Australia has grown since the first settlement on the Indigenous lands, we have created states and territories, education for our people and developed a safe community for people to live in.
We have grown as a community and we have embraced our culture from this land and from the migrants to the country. In the beginning there were conflicts between the British and Indigenous people as the settlers occupied their traditional territory. This occupation issue has been festering over the years and has resulted in land claims similar to what has happened in Canada. From convicts to well educated and harmonious citizens we have become one of the most respected and multi-cultural communities, unlike other countries where there is discrimination of other cultures or totalitarian regimes in power.
These along with lack of education are major reasons that lead to conflict and subsequent war within a country. In Australia we embrace our multicultural society and advertise this as an advantage for migrants to come to our country to boost our declining birth rate and ageing demographics. Being an Australian citizen you have guidelines and responsibilities that you have to follow they are: – Obey the laws and fulfil your duties as an Australian citizen – Enrol on the Electoral Register and vote at federal, state, territory and local government elections and referendums – Serve on a jury, if called upon Defend Australia, should the need arise From these guidelines you have to respect the law, vote for your leader, become a concerned citizen and defend your country if it is needed. These rights express the freedom and voice that you have in Australia. If an unelected leader ruled you, you wouldn’t have these rights and freedoms, which Australian citizens have. The powers of the federal government are outlined in the constitution. The constitution also outlines the role of States, Judiciary and the Governor-General.
This constitution can only be altered by a majority of the states having a majority of voters approving the proposed law, only 1 alteration to the constitution has happened in over 100 years and that was the granted of suffrage to the aborigines. Comparing the Australian system to another country with a totalitarian regime ruling for example in China, there is an estimated 500,000 people that are currently enduring punishment without charge or trial.
Whereas in Australia you would go through court to be judged by a jury to receive the punishment required (This is exemplified by the detaining of David Hicks in Guantanomo Bay without a trial, even though he may have committed serious crimes, he should have at least had a fair and proper trial shortly after his arrest). There has been harassment, house arrest and abuse of human rights in China due to protests against the government, an issue that Australia does not face. Another interesting comparison is Fiji a place I have visited. Whilst there I noticed the non-integration of the Fijians and Indians.
Consequent to this there is always tension between the two races and that is why there have been many coops over the years. The army has too much power and is able to topple the government, a situation that would be intolerable in Australia. The main issues facing Australia in 2008 are the distribution of wealth, positioning Australia for globalisation, the poor socio-economic status of our indigenous people and subsequent poor health and living condition of the indigenous people, the ageing of Australia and subsequent global warming and its subsequent impacts on the economy and the ecology.
With the distribution of wealth, the government has introduced welfare to work measures and due to this and the robust economy 600,000 people have returned to work from welfare in the last 10 years. People on Centrelink payments are basically living day to day and need more money to be able to live a reasonable life style. The downside of this booming economy and persons working is the affordability of housing being an all time low. With globalisation Australia is finding a great proportion of manufactured goods being made in China.
In addition our Call Centres are being staffed by more and more overseas staff (mainly Indians). Australia is lucky to be endowed with abundant resources, but this employs very few people. Due to the high cost of our labour market compared with 3rd world countries we need to continually establish niche industries that require highly educated people. The Howard government introduced a taskforce to tackle the problems faced by indigenous Australians in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory Emergency Response was primarily initiated to give the aboriginal children a better and safer future.
It is early days on this initiative, but this may be a starting point in addressing this imbalance in our society. Australia like many 1st world countries is experiencing an ageing workforce. Couples are having fewer children and later in their life, to assist couples the government has introduced a Baby Bonus payment, increase Child Care payments and has an immigration policy targeted to supplement the declining birth rate. This essay has outlined all the current positive aspects of Australian society, but we need to address the future and the sustainability of our environment for our grandchildren.
The federal government is addressing this issue by introducing a carbon-trading scheme. This carbon trading scheme, where the tax on carbon producing goods and services go into a positive influence on the environment, for example planting trees. The Australian government is following leads by other countries in this circumstance. Australia may have its problems e. g Obesity problems, homeless persons, cost of housing. But these pale into insignificance when compared with issues faced by countries with civil wars and health epidemics (such as Aids in Africa).
Australians give money to overseas charities, a great example of this was the tsunamis experienced South East Asia. Following this catastrophic event the Charity Organisations were inundated with money. In addition the Federal Government gives substantial sums of money to our Pacific neighbours. Australia although not a power on the world stage can impose a lot of influence in the Pacific Islands. Australia is a far from perfect country but through a democratic system anyone of voting age can do things to address the problems that they see as an important issue.
This can be illustrated by the election of the Rudd government on its environmental and workplace relations’ platform. The Howard government argued that without India and China aboard any carbon trading scheme would not work. They are probably right in this issue, so the Rudd government needs to set up a fair and equitable trading scheme and find some way on imposing a carbon tax on any goods and services we get from countries that do not have a scheme in place.