Team Three DES2104

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Immigration to Australia

About a quarter of Australia's 21.5 million people were born overseas. In another 20 percent of residents, at least one parent was born overseas, and in over half of the population, one or more of their grandparents may have been born overseas.

Accordingly to data released, Indians are the fastest-growing ethnic community in Australia. Reports said that around 360 Indians arrive in Australia seeking to make it their home.

Till August this year, around 19,000 Indians arrived in the country seeking permanent settlement. Accordingly to reports, this figure is a three-fold increase compared to the same period last year. However, this data does not include people on temporary visas, such as students and skilled workers under the 457 program. The figures could substantially increase.

A slight increase has been seen in the number of Chinese migrants to the country, with the figure reaching 18,240.

Meanwhile, data showed a drop in the number of people from New Zealand seeking settlement in Australia. Notably, New Zealanders have unrestricted access in Australia. Reports said that the country saw the arrival of some 26,170 New Zealanders this year, down by 4,000 compared to previous year.

The UK has been another major source of Australia's migrant population. However, ABS data revealed that arrival of people from UK has actually fallen over the last year, decreasing from 15,790 in 2011-2012 to 11,450 this year.

According to data, the other major migrant ethnic groups arriving during the period include people from the Philippines (7,270), Malaysia (3,810), Vietnam (3,630) and Sri Lanka (3,580).

Accordingly to the latest Census of Population and Housing (2011), about a quarter of Australia's 21.5 million people were born overseas. In another 20 percent of residents, at least one parent was born overseas, and in over half of the population, one or more of their grandparents were born overseas.

Sources:

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/504625/20130909/australia-immigration-migration-permanent-settlement-australian-bureau.htm#.UlXmKY2BRMI

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Australian PM Compared to HIV-denying Leader

The Coalition cut more than $300 million off its carbon reduction plan. The party also axed the Climate Commission, a body established by the opposing politicians.

Nilay Shah, a British process engineer expressed his disagreement:

"There's an interesting parallel with South Africa in the 90s, where political capital was being made out of HIV denial,"

"Those people must now regret what they did. I suspect that some of the politicians (now arguing against rapid cuts in emissions) will still be around in the mid-2030s and will reflect that they didn't do enough on climate change."

The budget for the Direct Action plan was reduced to under $2.9 billion by halving the funds supporting consumers to install solar panels while reducing the budget for research from $60 million to $12 million and giving the funds to a different centre.

Sources:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-11/coalition-climate-direct-action-policy-cut-by-24300-million/4952002

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/policy/abbotts-carbon-move-likened-to-hiv-denial/story-e6frg6xf-1226722370098

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Tony Abbott's View on Freedom of Speech

The Prime Minister is seeking to appeal the Racial Discrimination Act which prevents offensive remarks towards others based on their race and ethnicity:

"I'm not encouraging people to be offensive. People may suffer social ostracism, they may deserve to suffer social ostracism. But if someone has got something they really want to say then, subject to the ordinary laws of defamation, they should be able to say it."

Sources have criticized Tony Abott, saying the freedom of speech should be taken with responsibility and consideration. The Act provides security for the already marginalized minority of Australia, giving them a "legislative protection" for their emotional, psychological and mental health.

Sources:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/tony-abbott-to-champion-freedom-of-speech/story-fn9qr68y-1226710959763#

http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2012/08/13/3566446.htm

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Prime Minister's Refugee Policy and Indonesia's Impressions

Tony Abott's "stop the boat" policy, in short, includes the cutting of the immigration advice funding and the purchase of people smugglers' information as well as their boats from Indonesia.

The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister has voiced his less than impressed opinions on the matter, calling the new policy "offensive", "illegal" and could negatively impact the countries' relationship. Mr. Tantowi Yahya, a senior politicians of Indonesia's Foreign Affairs Commission, expressed agreement:

" The policies will be very offensive. We and the parliarment fully support what was said by the Foreign Minister that we will fully reject the policy."

"The policy which is going to be implemented by Mr Abbott clearly ... annoys our sovereignty as independent country,"

Tony Abott has no arguments against the Indonesian Government. He seeks to visit the country on the 30th in hope of finding Indonesia's understanding of the policy instead of its permission.

Sources:

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2013/09/19/abbott-gets-work-stopping-boats

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tony-abbotts-asylum-seeker-policies-offensive-says-senior-indonesian-politician-20130919-2u082.html

http://theconversation.com/where-to-now-for-asylum-seeker-policy-under-tony-abbott-18010

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/we-will-reject-abbotts-policy-on-asylum-seekers-indonesia-foreign-minister-marty-natalegawa-20130912-2tmkw.html

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Our Place in the Economy

Our economic growth is largely dependent on the mining sector and agricultural sector with the products to be exported mainly to the East Asian market.

The Australian Securities Exchange in Sydney is the largest stock exchange in Australia and in the South Pacific and ranks 9th in the world in terms of market capitalisation. Australia is home to some of the largest companies in the world, including but not limited to, BHP Billiton, National Australia Bank, Commonwealth Bank, Rio Tinto Group, ANZ, Westpac, Telstra, Macquarie Bank, Woolworths and AMP – which also are the 10 largest companies in Australia. The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia and its territories, including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is also the official currency of the independent Pacific Island nations of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu.

Australia is a member of the APEC, G20, OECD and WTO. The country has also entered into free trade agreements with ASEAN, Chile, New Zealand, and the United States.

  Information cited here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Australia

More information on our economic standing can be found at these sources:

 Our place on the world stock exchange: http://www.sfc.hk/web/doc/EN/research/stat/a01.pd 

Our most influential companies: http://www.forbes.com/2007/12/03/australia-bhp-forbes40-biz-cx_ll_1203australia40.html

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AUSTRALIA EXPORTS

Exports in Australia increased to 26202 Million AUD in July of 2013 from 26148 Million AUD in June of 2013. Exports in Australia is reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistic.

Australia Exports averaged 8613.08 Million AUD from 1971 until 2013, reaching an all time high of 27963 Million AUD in August of 2011 and a record low of 434 Million AUD in October of 1971. Rich in natural resources, Australia is a major exporter of commodities.

Metals like iron-ore and gold account for 28 percent of total exports, coal for 18 percent and oil and gas for 9 percent. Manufactured goods constitute 33 percent of the total exports with food and metal products and machinery and equipment accounting for the biggest share.

Agricultural products, particularly wheat and wool make up 5 percent of trade outflows. Australia's largest export markets are China (27 percent of total exports), Japan (17 percent), South Korea (7 percent), India (6 percent) and the European Union countries. This page contains - Australia Exports - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

Information cited: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/australia/exports

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Today, in 2013 Australia’s population sits at approx. 22 million people, most are located in major cities along the coast line of Australia however and that means we have one of the lowest population densities in the world. (That means less people per square meter,)

We are one of the most ethnically diverse societies in the world today.

Almost one in four Australian residents were born outside of Australia and many more are first or second generation Australians, the children and grandchildren of recently arrived migrants and refugees.

This wide variety of backgrounds, together with the culture of Indigenous Australians who help create our multicultural and diverse culture we live in today.

Info. found here; http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people Another link; Not really to do with Group three but hopefully it’s useful to someone http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-stories/australian-identity

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Statistics

http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/0 If you go to this website, you can view statistics about Australians from, how old everyone is, where we come from, what language we speak, how many hours we work a week. It's very informative and easy to read. It's also compared to 2006 for reference. Incase no one knows what the census is, it's like a quiz, that gets mailed out to every household in Australia in one night, and everyone fills it out so we can clearly see WHO WE ARE as Australians. Also, a great starting place to get quick basic information, plus the percentages might be useful to people in the future (not entirely sure what everyone will be making for the assessment but if you want to include %'s and facts, this is probably your best and most reliable source of information on that. Hope this helps everyone!

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Who (we are)- aboriginals or Australian Aboriginals

Aboriginals are people whose ancestors were indigenous to the Australian continent- main land Australian and including Tasmania - before British settlement in 1788. Aboriginals play an important group in Australian Society. Here's an article that goes more into the history of the Aboriginals in Australia http://www.aboriginalheritage.org/history/history/. Some people may remember learning about this in school or not but I'm sure people who haven't been here that long or didn't learn about it might find it interesting/important to know. And here's one that's just got some more background information and correct names of the tribes and groups or aboriginals if anyone wants to look at it or wants to go into that a bit more I'm not sure how useful this information will be to people, but I thought, better to include it than not. Plus Aboriginals DO make a portion of Australian culture so I thought it was appropriate to include. Can never have too much information right!?

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So, to start off with, before, I get in to other things, I wanted to leave this link here; http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070212141023AAGrEWn Basically, someone asked on yahoo! answers, WHAT IS A MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY and I thought all the answers were decent and there’s a lot of different views from people in Australia but over the world. As Australians like the define our culture as multicultural I thought including this would be a good starting place. Here’s another informative article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism and this one here focus’ more on Australia in general; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiculturalism_in_Australia I thought I would just leave these here in case any one wanted to know what a multicultural society is and means (in case there are those who don’t,)

Also; multicultural — adj consisting of, relating to, or designed for the cultures of several different races http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/multicultural