Robert Menzies was the Australian Prime Minister from 1939 through to 1941, before being re-elected and serving as Prime Minister again from 1949-1966. As Australia’s longest-serving Prime Minister; having served for over 18 years; his impact on Australian culture at the time, and until this day is far reaching. A series of speeches; which were Menzies’ most memorable; which was ironically delivered outside of his time as a Prime Minister and on a radio show; centred on “The Forgotten People”’; the Australian middle-class of his day and how they had been forgotten by the political establishment of the day. Who were Menzies’ forgotten people? They were the everyday Australian, the middle-class, that which in Menzies’ perspective upheld Australian values and formed the backbone of Australian society. The middle class itself is part of an idea originally proposed by Max Weber. Max Weber was a Philosopher from the 19th century, who is today considered one of the founders of sociology. His key proposal was that class divisions were the most important source of social conflict, and that …show more content…
Within the context of Australian society, and specifically at the time of Robert Menzies’ speech, he was referring to the “salary-earners, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, professional men and women, farmers for the most part unorganised and unself-conscious. They are envied by those whose benefits are largely obtained by taxing them”. For Menzies, the forgotten people were the hard-working middle class that he saw as largely being taken advantage of by the prevailing political and economic system of his
On September 3, 1939 Prime Minister, Robert Gordon Menzies, declared the commencement of Australia's involvement in the Second World War on every national and commercial radio station. From 1942 until early 1944, Australian forces, especially Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders played a key role in the Pacific War forming the majority of Allied strength throughout the South West Pacific. Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders affected Australia’s World War Two efforts in their extended volunteering and willingness to fight and die in the war. Aboriginal people were a crucial part of defending the Australian home front, in which they had limited or no rights. Many experienced equal treatment to white Australians for the first time in their
The stolen generation is a scenario carry out by the Australian government to separate most aboriginal people’s families. The government was enforced take the light skinned aboriginal kids away from their guardians to learn the white people’s culture in the campus around the country and then send them back to their hometown and prohibit them join the white people’s society after they turn be an adult. The
Prime Minister Robert Menzies was a believer in the need for ‘great and powerful friends’ and the idea of ‘forward defence’. Before the 1949 federal election, Menzies campaigned on the representation of the Labor Party as out of touch with Australia’s postwar ambitions. He was aided by Chifley’s willpower to cover union wage stresses and control increase. Predominantly injuring for Labor was a Communist-led coal strike in New South Wales, and the government’s practice of troops to
In Jasper Jones, racial power has been reflected through the representation of certain groups and individuals of the 1960s and the conflicts that occurred. At the time in which the text was set being the 1960s, racial prejudice was evident in Australia, especially in rural areas that maintained a parochial and xenophobic society. Aboriginal people were not recognised as citizens of Australia and in some cases, not even as people. They were mistreated and typically seen as uneducated drunkards and criminals. Offspring of white colonists and Aboriginal people were regarded as ‘half-caste’ and were also not acknowledged as Australians. In the same context, there was a growing hatred and resentment towards Vietnamese immigrants due to the impac...
In the nineteenth century, the “History wars” became the fight between the most prominent historians revolving around the deception of frontier conflict between the labor and coalition. The debate aroused from the different interpretations of the violence that took place during the European colonization and to what degree. It became a crisis in history, emerging from the dispossession of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI) that resulted in exclusion of their traditions and culture. The ATSI were the first people of Australia that brought along a different culture, language, kinship structures and a different way of life (Face the Facts, 2012). Post European colonization was a time where the ATSI people experienced disadvantage in the land they called home. With the paramount role as future educators, it demands proficient knowledge on the Australian history and one of the most influential moments in our history started from the first European settlers.
The Australian Freedom Riders consisted of thirty students that attended the University of Sydney. These students had heard about the American Freedom Riders and it sparked inspiration amongst them to make a difference within the Australian community. The whole idea of their trip was to help get rid of the socially discriminatory barriers which was standing up between indigenous and non-indigenous people, they had planned on bringing attention to the bad state of aboriginal heath, education and housing and finally they also wanted to encourage the aboriginals to stand up for themselves against discrimination. Charles Perkins a man born in Alice Springs and a third year arts student at the University of Sydney said ‘The whole freedom riders idea was not for white people on my mind, it’s for aboriginal people to realise second class isn't good enough, you don't always have to be first class but don't always be second class’ . The trip was planned...
The poem “Who are We” on the other hand describes Australia from the Aborigine point of view, and the dare consequences it had for their life and lifestyle. The poem also describes the special relation that the Aborigines have with the nature, and how the white men destroyed it all, how they took their land and home from them, and made them prisoners in their own land, “Where in the world do we feel free, when born into life as an Aborigine”. The poem describes all of those things such as the lost generation and how the majority has ignored them, which became a historical amnesia in the Australian society. “Nature is screaming and crying in pain, at the loss of her children”
“Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human History. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation’s history. The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians” (apology by Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, 16th November 2009, Parliament House, Canberra.)
Summary of Text: ‘The Redfern Address’ is a speech that was given to a crowd made up of mainly indigenous Australians at the official opening of the United Nations International Year of the World’s Indigenous Peoples in Redfern Park, New South Wales. This text deals with many of the challenges that have been faced by Indigenous Australians over time, while prompting the audience to ask themselves, ‘How would I feel?’ Throughout the text, Keating challenges the views of history over time, outlines some of the outrageous crimes committed against the Indigenous community, and praises the indigenous people on their contribution to our nation, despite the way they have been treated.
The transformation of Australian social policy since the 1980’s would be best characterised by the transition from the ‘welfare state’ to ‘social investment state’ (McClelland and Smith, 2014, pp 106). Key to understanding the welfare and social policy reform that has been occurring from the 1980’s would be to look at the social understanding and interpretation of social citizenship (Shaver, 2001). Welfare has been seen as it should be provided on condition and not as a right of citizenship (Shaver, 2002 p.340).
...s case in the referendum to achieve equal rights for Aboriginal citizens. These issues that have risen from the 1967 referendum are still very prominent in todays society. ‘Writing for children is usually purposeful, its intention being to foster in the child reader a positive apperception of some socio-cultural values which, it is assumed, are shared by author and audience. These values include contemporary morality and ethics; a sense of what is valuable in the culture’s past (what a particular contemporary social formation regards as the culture’s centrally important traditions), and aspirations about the present and future. (Stephens, 1992, Language and Ideology, p. 3), furthermore, Frankland’s novel is a basic piece of literature for young children to gather an understanding of indigenous and Australian culture.
'The Australian Legend', in itself is an acurate portrayal and recount of one part of society, from a specific era, ie. the Australian bushman of the 1890s. Its exaggerations, however, such as the romanticism of the bush ethos by Australian writers, the unbalanced use of evidence, and the neglect to acknowledge the contribution to our national identity from certain sections of society, ie. aboriginal people, city-dwellers, women, and non-British immigrants, render this book to be flawed. For these reasons, it cannot be regarded as a complete and balanced account of Australian history.
There are different views in concern to the subject of Australia’s culture and the relations to the government and history. Many claim that Australia’s blend of global influences-the cross-fertilisation of cultures by the dominant political powers of Great Britain, the United States, and emerging neighbours in Asia.
In this essay I will argue that Gough Whitlam, His Government and His Policies changed Australia and the Australian way of life. I will argue this by examining some of his best known policies. Specifically the ones aimed at the everyday Australian and how the pol...