Negative Consequences Of Mistakes In Australia

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Mistakes, by the common definition are choices made that have often unintended negative consequences, some of which can be far reaching. It has become a common part of human life to make mistakes, something we all do once in a while. Faults on our part more often than not affect the future; the past is infinitely out of reach and forever altering the present. No-one can move forward, no-one can grow, without recognizing the past circumstances that have led to the present situation. Former prime-minister Julia Gillard repeatedly stated that Australia was “moving forward” but in what way was it truly progressing? There lacked the consideration of past folly’s to truly advance as we were assured we were. The First World War saw millions of…show more content…
In the recent election Tony Abbot became Prime minister, this is by far the most blatant example of people being blind to the past and regressing due to unwillingness to see. In 1982 the White Australia Policy was abolished, the intention was that Australia would be a country anyone of any nationality could call home, now we have asylum seekers trying to land on our shores, a prime minister determined to turn them back at any cost and a majority of the population who elected him, how is this showing progress and lowering levels of racism? It’s not just those who are trying to gain access, it’s the people already here who still feel segregated. Randa Abdel-Fattah wrote a short story titled “Of Middle Eastern Appearance” that was published in the anthology “True Blue”, it is an account of her life in Australia and the difficulties she faced being someone with a Middle Eastern background. She recounts how she was once asked by a teenage girl “Do you ever wish you were fully Aussie… like Anglo?” this is a view shared by far too many and the fact that it was asked at a school highlights the acceptance of it amongst the public almost to the point of encouragement. Australia has a history of not trusting those of a different race, for example the White Australia policy and the methods used by immigration officers to prevent those of different ethnicities from entering Australia. Mistakes such as this are clearly being repeated, attitudes have shifted but not changed and no real progress has been made, as Randa Abdel-Fattah said “‘Muslim’ and ‘Australian’ are perceived as mutually

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