Becoming a republic, citizens of Australia might feel unsafe and leave the country. Do we really want that happening because of one little change? People might say, do we really need their help anyway? All I can say is, the more help, the better. Britain and Australia share so much history together; it would be disgraceful just to ditch them.
Australia, it is time for a new flag. We, as the people of Australia, need to change the flag of this beautiful nation, as it only represents the doctrines and aspects set by the British. Not only does the flag show that we are still apart of the British, but marginalises the many people of this land. Australia now being a fully self-governed country is blooming with multiculturalism and individualism, which is not shown on the flag. Why do we need a new flag?
The United Nations Refugee Conventions allows a person to be defined as a refugee only if they are outside their country of nationality or their usual country of residence and is unable or unwilling to return or to seek the protection of that country due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion is not a war criminal and has not committed any serious non-political crimes or acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. This treaty has increased the amount of migrants come to Australia and has also increased our population, though when John Howard introduced the Pacific solution, the amount of refugees coming to Australia dropped drastically. Signing the United Nations Refugee convention with that this treaty when signed made our country look good in its global community. Migration has changed along the many years from the first settlement to the White Australia policy , from that to multiculturalism to the United Nations refugee convention to now. All those years, all those treaties and laws make what we as a country are today, a country full of culture and traditions from all different countries
Political correctness has gone too far in Australia. The term political correctness refers to not using words or behaviour which won’t offend any group of people. The purpose of being “politically correct” is so as to not harm others while talking to them. By doing so, this "trend" in society has been taken out of proportion and limits our freedom of speech to some degree, primary schools and kindergartens changing the words of nursery rhymes and Australian traditions are being altered just to avoid offending others. Good morning ladies and gentleman, my name is Emily Tran.
Nine years later NSW legally recognised same sex relationships by decriminalising sexual activity, the Australian Medical Association removed homosexuality from its list of illnesses and disorders. As all of the above movements signify effective action taken towards same sex relationships there still remains a large area of inequality, which has not been given legal recognition, which is marriage. Same sex couples cannot be married in Australia as the Marriage
This was not considered unfair treatment by the Australian society for the simple reason that they did not exist under Australian law and were considered ‘present absentees (Hudson and Bolten, 1997). Racism and egalitarianism were interwoven until approximately the 1970. Traditional value of egalitarianism does not reflect contemporary values, but since federation immigration laws and Australia’s multiculturalism seems to reflect that egalitarianism is relevant in contemporary Australia. In saying that, a sense of Xenophobia still exists in its multicultural environment, as “having a fair go” can be seen as non-existent when society separates itself from particular cultures for example, identifying certain racial groups as ‘Muslims’ in comparison to who is deemed as acceptable ‘Australians’ (Watson, 2011). It can be argued that Australia’s national identity has been formed from images and ideas of being Australian which society and the media have shaped through story-telling, myth making, news reporting, academic pontificating, cinema production and watching, and more.
According to the UN refugee agency, an illegal immigrant is someone who has moved from one state to another without any legal claim, such as a visa. All of the people on these boats are asylum seekers which means they are complying with Australian law and UN protocol. In the words of our current prime minister Julia Gillard. "For people to say they're anxious about border security doesn't make them intolerant. It certainly doesn't
Australians should join together in disagreement of the proposed bill to cut all funding and political support for religious organisations under the premise that there is “no evidence that religions make a significant contribution to the individual or to Australian society”. It is in every Australian citizen’s best interest, religious or not, to disagree with this bill as the practice of religious beliefs and support from Monotheistic religious organisations contribute to individuals and society. These organisations act as a guideline to life through the characteristics of religion and furthermore, religions incorporate the supernatural element to form a belief system to impact individuals and society in an optimistic manner. Contributions
The Australian Aborigines have what is called the cross-cousin marriage rule; this is the marriage of the children of opposite–sex siblings, such as the father's sister or the mother's brother (Nowak & Laird 2010). This is a marriage that I think is strange, but not completely unheard of, although it is frowned upon in my society. In my society a marriage is between two people of no blood relation so that the family tree branches out and not in a circle. This type of kinship would not affect my behaviors because I do not believe in this type of marriage. The next example of the Australian Aborigines kinship system is the way they accept or adopt a non-Aboriginal into the group.
Although Australian society has formed a bridge to co-exist with surrounding cultures, not enough has been done to accommodate for this within the law itself. Ignorantia juris non excusat, or, ignorance of the law is not a defence, is a component of common law concerning the idea that someone who is not aware of their wrongdoing before the law can still be punished for there actions. When we qualify Australia as a multicultural society, this concept of ignorance represents a generalisation, which perhaps does not reflect an Australian society of modern times. Many ethnic groups from a variety of non-English speaking backgrounds represent a significant proportion of society. The ignorance of law rule could, in many circumstances, act rather insensitively towards members of these communities and could potentially penalize those whose activities could be interpreted as criminal without knowledge of their misconduct .