Political Conditions Part 1

So far in my research I have looked at the history and the actual systems of government. To better understand these two aspects of Australian politics it is important to look at the political conditions of the country.

I found an amazing article that goes in extreme depths about what politics are like down under. The article is so large that I am going to be splitting up my thoughts and summaries of the article in two blogs, this being the first.

Like other liberal democracies, Australia has a multi-party system. What makes Australia unique is that unlike the U.S. or Britain there are three dominates parties. The first is the Liberal Party (represents urban businesses), the National party (represents rural interests), and the Australia Labor Party (represents trade unions and liberal groups). In general all groups support welfare programs and are committed to international alliances with other states such as the U.S. This type of party system allows for many citizens voices to be heard in the government. Despite this Australia has large political gaps and inequality that many citizens and residents live with everyday. Within the last few decades Australia has had to deal with a few large of political challenges dealing with with aboriginal issues, and asylum seekers.

Australia has some the worst documented treatment of original residents. After having the country to themselves for over 2,000 years, aborigines were forced off their land and denied any access to the economic benefits that now ruled their land. So far this sounds a lot like Native Americans within the U.S., the only difference being that most aboriginal situations have not improved.

As recently as the 20^th century aboriginal people were still denied the right to own land or have rights over their own children and families. Once an aboriginal family had a child, the child was taken from their parents and was placed in government run institutions. The Australian goal was to create a “white Australia” by removing all traces of the aboriginal culture from the country.

This policy lasted all the way until the 1970’s. Today aboriginal families are still trying to seek compensation for their abuse and inhumane treatment, but so far the courts have rejected the cases. In 2000 many aboriginals used the Summer Olympics to bring international attention to their situation.

In 2001 after the terrorist attacks on the United States, Australia took a hard stance supporting the war on terrorism. One of the methods they used was rejecting all asylum seekers (or refugees). They then went on to pay Pacific nations to take in the unwanted people costing Australia $77 million. This practice became too costly and forced Australia to take a new role with illegal immigrants and refugees. That is when Australia enacted the detention of illegal immigrants. These detention camps contained a wide variety of people and ages, often time detaining whole families with small children. This practice became very controversial because many small children had to experience riots, suicides, and hunger strikes. Many of these inhumane treatments were made public in 2005 when an Iranian, who spent his childhood in the camps, took court action against the Australian government for his treatment and psychological troubles.

After reading this information I couldn’t believe how a country that has such little corruption, viewed as a Liberal Democracy, could get away with this treatment for so many years. I feel like its seclusion has allowed some of these inhuman treatments to occur without any intervention. Even today we don’t heard that much about Australia’s dark past. It is a strong reminder that every country didn’t start strong or just, and maybe countries that are struggling today will someday reach a level of stability and equality, despite their past.