Why is the Australian Identity so difficult to define? "I am, you are, we are Australian' these lyrics are from the iconic song "I am Australain" by Bruce Woodley, but what does 'Australian' really mean? How can we be called 'Australian' in a definitive manner when Australia is so young and so diverse? Answering these questions is a major obstacle to overcome to get down to the nitty-gritty of what being Australian really is. As times changed so does the Australian identity and many have yet to realise, hence the continuation of stereotypes.
As you can tell by reading this, there were many reasons how and why Australia became a Federation. There are also mentioned reasons that held back the ‘go ahead’ of the Federation movement. A lot of interesting information was gathered and use for this ‘discussion’ and a lot was learned from
A number of cases concerning Indigenous people’s land rights have been heard in Australian courts in recent years. The Mabo v. Queensland case led to recognition of the prior land rights of Australian Aboriginal people by the common law of Australia.In Mabo v. Queensland (1988), Eddie Mabo instigated proceedings in original jurisdiction of the High Court to have the Queensland Coast Islands Declaration Act (1985) declared invalid. As it was in conflict with the Commonwealth’s Racial Discrimination Act 1975 The High Court held that the Queensland Act and the Federal Act were both valid. However, the both acts were inconsistent and according to the inconsistency rule in s.109 in Constitution the Queensland Act was declared invalid. This decision leads to the second case of Mabo v. Queensland .The High Court decision in Mabo v. State of Queensland (1992) 107 ALR 1 overthrew the belief that Australia was terra nullius when the English occupied it in 1788.
Finally, Australia’s reliance on unwritten conventions and how this leaves our democratic institutions vulnerable and open to attack is also considered. On the 1st January 1901 Australia was unified under a federal system of government by the Australian Constitution (“Parliament and Government,” n.d., para. 1). The Constitution “established the Commonwealth Government (now known as the Australian Government), defined its structure, powers and procedures, and defined the rights and obligations of the states in relation to the Commonwealth” (“Australia’s federation,” n.d., para. 3).
In my opinion, I believe that Australia did develop into an independent nation in the world during 1900-1945. Through the likes of federal policies in 1900-1914, WW1, 1920-1930’s and WW2 Australia increasingly became a more independent country. At the start of Australia’s birth; the federal government had placed many laws that would separate Australia from the world in terms of how they treated the working class. We placed many laws like the eight-hour day and basic wage. These laws protected the working class and we were the leaders throughout the world to place these laws in place.
The Australian parliamentary system is based of the British Westminster system, which was adopted in the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (UK), known as the Commonwealth Constitution. The Commonwealth Constitution established the Commonwealth Parliament and outlined its law- making powers. The Bicameral System The Commonwealth and state parliaments operate on a bicameral system, which means two houses: an upper and lower house. Queensland and the territories are exceptions to this rule and only have one house each. At federal level the upper house is the Senate and the lower house is the By Jack Morris House of Representatives.
‘The great question which they had to consider was, whether the time had not now arisen for the creation on this Australian continent of an Australian Government.’ These were the great words of Sir Henry Parkes, the Father of Federation, made at the Tenterfield School of Arts on October 24th 1889. This speech had an enormous effect on the movement towards Federation which eventually occurred on 1st January 1901 in Centennial Park Sydney by Lord Hopetoun, the first Governor General. The characteristics of Federation are the uniting of several colonial governments to one federal government. The ‘Tenterfield address’ also outlines why Federation would help our defence, trade and transportation systems. However, such situations as pacific islanders,
When Captain James Cook arrived on the Australian continent’s eastern shore in 1770, he officially claimed Australia as Crown Land in the name of the King of Great Britain; denying the existence of any Indigenous ownership. Watch the documentary
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
This issue heavily affected the introduction of conscription in Australia. To solve this issue all the government had to do was change the Defence Act to extend the existing power of conscription for home service,