Name: Mellissa Harley SPE211: Foundations in Social Policy Student Number: 11242359 Assessment item 1 Liberal Democracies take various forms. These types of political systems at the same time support collectively owned institutions and a free market economy. This essay aims to discuss the Australian liberal democratic political system and how the wellbeing of its citizens is enhanced by its operation. This paper discusses the many tensions the Australian government must manage; between negative and positive liberalism, and between liberal and democratic theory. Finally, Australia’s reliance on unwritten conventions and how this leaves our democratic institutions vulnerable and open to attack is also considered.
True Blue? On Being Australian "Australia needs sudden shocks of reorientation within its society that will divorce it from the largely irrelevant problems of the British, make it possible to speed necessary changes and to develop some new sense of identity, some public feeling of being a people who can be described - even if incorrectly - as such-and-such a kind of nation, and act at times as if it were so. Australians are anonymous, featureless, nothing-men. This modest anonymity reveals itself in the argument that Australia does not run to the kind of person we could turn into a president. "Donald Horne - 1964 Australia is a country filled with so much multiculturalism that it is often hard to distinguish what qualities and values
In order to make our flag Australian, we must use proper symbols. The Australian Flag must be changed. In my opinion, our flag is not distinctively Australian. I strongly agree to those who accept the change of the Australian
He goes on to say that "...there are so many different sources contributing to the country's social alamgam." This quote further reitorates the fact that the Australian identity needs to be a multicultrual identity, not the stereotypical Anglo-Saxon identity it is today. This hurdle of breaking the stereotype is put further and further in the distance as racism is a key segregation factor, diminishing the Australian identity. The racism found in Australia can be partially derived from the need to conform to the 'Australian' stereotype and a negative outlook towards those who don't. The article "Australia Day car flag flyers 'racist'" by Rhianna King states "... is linked in this instance to
Politics trumps hard-headed reason on bicycle helmets. By Chris Rissel, professor of public Health at the university of Sydney Chrish Rissel is a professor of Sydney University. His opinion piece “politics trumps hard- headed reason on bicycle helmets”. Emphasises reason and evidence in order to attempt to persuade readers that bicycle helmet laws should be relaxed. With a serious tone and general formal style, she seeks to keep emotion out of the debate, positioning the readers to feel his point of view is strongly supported by the facts and that the Queensland govern has erred in ignoring expert advice on the issue.
Although the idea of omitting certain realities in the Heidelberg imagery is also present in Smith’s essay, he takes up an argument that results in a different interpretation of ‘Australian-ness’ in the Heidelberg artwork. He provides an interpretation of the different ideologies and meanings embedded in one of Australia’s most identifiably national painting. In ‘The divided meaning of Shearing the Rams’ Smith discusses the stylistic influences of Tom Roberts Shearing the Rams and describes the painting as “reject(ing) the sentimentality of Naturalism as firmly as it rejects the critical, questioning edge of Realism”.2 Yet the academic style of the painting is an important aspect. He also, like Burn’s, identifies the Heidelberg imagery of the bush as ‘suburban’ and identifies this with the urban bourgeoisie’s class ideologies. However, his main argument is that the painting was aimed at two very different and distinct audiences.
Electoral majoritarianism can sometimes be selfish and indifferent to wrongs and discrimination. Both major political parties currently actively support discrimination against asylum seekers, as well as the continuation of the Northern Territory intervention. There is simply not a feasible option for the Australian people to show their distaste for the discrimination that is occurring, even if they are both aware of and oppose it. As long as these policies benefit the major parties politically, they will continue. III.
Analyse the effects of changes in the exchange rate of the Australian dollar (against other currencies) on the Australian economy. Australia has adopted a floating exchange rate; the exchange rate is determined by the free play of market forces and not government intervention. An exchange rate is the price of any particular country’s currency in terms of another country’s currency. All trade and financial relationships between Australia and other countries are determined through the exchange rate which has a significant impact on Australia’s competitiveness and external stability. The Australian dollar is particularly impacted by fluctuations majorly attributed to speculative trade that occurs in Australian dollars.
These cases surveyed the rights of Indigenous Australians. In the Mabo Case the High Court ruled against the Commonwealth. They decided that native title still existed and introduced the Native Title Act (1993) to re-establish power. Further to illustrate this point, the political implications of the Toonen Case reveal that the Tasmanian State law was found to be in breach of international Human Rights law which then provided the Commonwealth legislation the power to override that of the State. This case reinforces the authority of the Commonwealth over the States outlined under the external affairs power in international
By terminating mandatory detention and the misinterpretation of refugees in the community, the world would be a better place and Australians would actually be proud of who they are and what they stand for. Asylum seekers must be allowed to enter Australia to stop the misconception of refugees in the Australian