AustraliaAustraliaAustraliaAustralia

Part One The Land and the

People of the Dreaming

I. The Land

1. The natural environment of

Australia

• The continent of Australia lies between equatorial South East Asia and the Antarctic. It is the largest island in the world, and is also the smallest, flattest and driest continent in the world.

2. The distinctive features of the

land: the Great Dividing

Range and the Great Barrier

Reef.

3. The distivctive animals of the land: the platypus( 鸭嘴兽 ), the kangaroo, the koala, the wombat( 毛鼻袋熊 )

II. The Peoples1. The Peoples of the Dreaming

belong to over 500 different groups or nations with different languages and cultures but they were bound together by their belief in the Dreaming.

2. The “Dreamtime” is most often used to refer to the “time before time”, or “the time of the creation of all things”, while “Dreaming” refers to an individual’s or group’s set of beliefs or spirituality.

3. It is based on the central principle that people who live on the continent have special responsibilities to the land --- that the land owns them and that they hold it in trust as the home of their creator.

III. The Impact of Colonization

1. The concept of Terra Nullius: the term is from Latin, which means a land that is owned by no one. The British declared the Australian continent Terra Nullius to justify their invasion of the indigenous people’s land

2.The impact of colonization on the indigenous people

• the indigenous people were dispossessed of the land they had lived on for tens of thousands of years;

• they were killed in violent skirmishes and massacres;

• they contracted the diseases brought by the white settlers and as a result, their population fell drastically.

IV. The policies of segregation, exclusion and assimilation

1. By the mid-1800s the

government of violence

changed to policies of

segregation and exclusion.

2. By the beginning of the 20th

century the policy of

protection had been replaced

by the policy of assimilation.

• It was founded on the belief that the white culture was progressive and superior while the indigenous culture was inferior.

3. The double loss of traditional culture and exclusion from mainstream Australian society and culture led to Aboriginal people being labelled as lazy, stupid and drunken and dirty.

Part Two Religion in Australia Today

I. The Dreaming:

The Dreaming means that people do not own the land – the land owns the people who have responsibilities of guardianship towards it.

• However, Australia still can be seen as a religious society, as over three quarters of the Australian population is associated with some form of religion.

Part Three From Penal Colony to “Free

Migration”I. The beginning of the penal colony1. The first period of the colonization

of Australia, lasting from 1788 to the 1830s, was based largely on the “unfree” labor of the convicts.

• New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland were established as convict colonies; Victoria and South Australia, established in 1830s, were settled as “free”, or non-convict, colonies.

• Western Australia, established in 1828 as a free colony, turned to convict labor in 1850 and become a convict colony for 19 years until 1869.

• Convict partnerships were not the only form of family of this era. There were also “free” families of people who came over with the transported convicts, families of soldiers or administrators of the colony or people who arrived as “free settlers”.

II. From convict transportation to “free”migration

1. By the early 1820s there was pressure from the majority of the “free’ settlers in NSW to replace convict transportation with “free migration” and to establish a “free market” economy.

2. The 1930s and 1840s formed

the early years of the modern

(non-convict) system of the

Australian Political Economy.

3. Wakefield Scheme: • It was devised by Edward

Wakefield, a convict and theorist on colonization, to solve the problem of labor shortage in colonial Australia

• His proposal on the

development of colonial

Australia was that land should

not be freely and cheaply

available.

• It should be sold at suffient price to ensure that only men of capital could afford it. The money earned from selling land should be used to assist selected migrants to Australia.

Part Four Australia as a Liberal Democratic Society

I. Difference as the central value of the Australian society

• Ausrtalians understand and conduct life upon a basic commitment to difference. The emphasis is upon the principle that there are different ways if thinking and knowing about the world: there is neither absolute truth nor one single way to run the country.

• The end

II. The formation of Australian political system

1. The “Washminster”form of polity:

• It is a mixture of the U S. Washington system of government and the British Westminster system. This means that the political structure of the government is based on a Federation of State with a three tier system of government.

2. The three-tier system of the Australian government

• The Australian federation has three tiers in its government system: at the federal level, there are the Australian Parliamant and the government.

• In the second tier are the state governments and their legislatures. In the third tier are the local government bodies at the city, town and shire levels.

3. The advantages of the pluralist form of government

1) It enables the citizens to exercise their political right to choose their own government;

2) It secures transparency and accountability of the government;

3) It provides for an alternative government which can competently take over the state affairs should any government collapase;

4) The citizens can exert their power through major interest groups.

4. The Constitutional Crisis of 1975

• It was caused by the dismissal

of the Whitlam government by

the Governor-General, which

was elected by people.

• When the Senate refused to pass the Supply Bill granting money for the operation of the government, Sir John Kerr, the Governor- General dismissed the Whitlam government.

• This dismissal was generally interpreted as a flouting of the uncodified conventions of government and caused political and popular animosity.

5.Whistle-blowers: they are often experts in both senior and lower levels of bureaucracies. They discover in their branch of the organization some problems of corruption and inefficiency and try to expose them.

6.The relations between Ministers and Heads of Department:

• Theoretically speaking, the public servants should be under the authority of the elected ministers

• The Minister is responsible for

making policies, and the Head

of Department is responsible

for implementing the policies.

• As the Head of Department tends to be an expert specialist who has been working in the area for a long time, the minister is often in danger of being influenced by the adminstrative expertise of the Head of Department.

7. Reasons for the increase of the government role in Australian political economy before 1980s:

1) the expansion of education, health and social welfare services;

2) the introduction of social security programmes;

3) the increase in government regulations of business and finance and the supply of labor;

4) the intriduction of a more complex system of justice and law and order.

8. Political economic changes in the shift to economic rationalism

1) financial regulations; 2) the privatization and corporationization of public service; 3) the end of centralized wage fixing system; 4) cuts in the size of the public sector and the sale of public assets.

Part Five From Racism to

MulticulturalismI. Ethnicity and inequality1. In mid-19th century migrants

were predominantly British, and those who benefited from assisted migration were almost all from Britain.

2. By the 1870s, the Chinese constituted the third largest group in Australia, after the Britsh (including the Irish) and Germans. Chinese migrants were subjected to racism at many levels. (target of physical attacks)

3. Pacific Islanders experienced a differnet history of racism in Australia. They were kidnapped by the “Blackbirders” and sold as indentured laborers to work in the sugar industry.

• The Pacific Island Laborers Act of 1901 was part of instituional discrimination – the White Australia Policy.

4.The White Australia Policy: it was officially adopted by the Commonwealth of Ausrtalia in 1901, in the Immigration Restriction Act. It was made to stop Chinese and other non-British migrants from entering and settling down in Australia.

• This was mainly achieved through a dictation test in a European language. The White Australia Policy was officially abolished in 1973.

II. Multiculturalism from 1973

1. It was adopted in 1973. It was comprised of three areas of policy: Cultural Identity, which means the right to express and share one’s cultural heritage;

• Social Justice, thr right to equal treatment and opportunites; and Economic Efficiency, the need to maintain and develop the skills of all Australians regardless of their backgrounds.

2. Freedom Rides

• In the mid-1960s, an aboriginal university student led a group of white university students to the outback of Australia to demonstrate against racial segregation.

• Their activities helped to raise the public awareness of racism and segregation in Ausralian society, and demonstrated the need for social change.

New Zealand

Part One Land, People and

History

I. Land

1. Situated in the southwest Pacific Ocean, New Zealand is a large, long group of island, which is made up of two main land masses, the North Island and the South Island, separated by Cook Strait.

2. New Zealand is in the southern temperate latitudes midway between the Equator and the South Pole. The capital city, Wellington, is the southernmost and windiest national capital city in the world. The climate is maritime.

3.The North Island• It is one of the three parts of New Zeal

and. It is famous for spectacular volcanos and the thermal region. About three-quarters of New Zealand’s population live on the North Island.

II. People1. The Kiwi

• The Kiwi is the name of one of the native birds in New Zealand. It is flightless. In colloquial English the Kiwi, capitalized, is also used to refer to a New Zealander.

2. The Resource Management Act• It reflects New Zealanders’

environmental awareness. Under the Act, law governing land, air and water resources are combined together to ensure the sustainable management of natural resources.

• It focuses on the effects of human activities on the whole environment as well. The Act came into force in 1991. With it, New Zealand leads the world in environmental legislation.

3. Maoritanga• It is a the Maori word for “Maori cult

ure”. It refers to all the elements of the rich cultural heritage of the indigenous people in New Zealand, including their language, customs and traditions.

Part Two Poplitical System, Education and Economy

I. Government

1. The Parliament

• Since 1950 Parliament has had a single chamber, the House of Representatives.

• Its functions include passing laws, supervising the government’s administration and receiving petitions from citizens with grievances. Currently there are 120 MPs, all elected by voters. Six of these are Maori MPs, who represent Maori voters only.

2. New Zealand has no written constitution. The Constitution Act 1986 defines the relationship between the legislative (Parliament), executive (Government departments and agencies) and judicial (the courts) roles of government.

3. For more than half a century, the two main parties in the House of Representatives have been the National Party (centre-right) and the Labor Party (centre-left).

4.The Parliamentary election in 1996 was held for the first time under the proportional representation system known as MMPR (Mixed Member Proportional Representation 混合成员比例代表制 ).

• Under this new election system, each voter has two votes, the first one for a candidate in their electorate, the second one for a political party.

• The second vote, when counted nationwide, decides the number of seats each party will take in Parliament.

• MMPR offers an opportunity for a range of parties to gain seats by achieving at least 5% of the party vote.

• Neither the National Party nor the Labor Party has held a majority of seats in Parliament since 1996. Government has been a coalition of at least two parties.

5.The Ombudsman ( 政府特派调查员 ) is appointed by Parliament to investigate people’s complaints against government departments and local authorities, and to ensure that appropriate official imformation is freely available to the public under the Official Information Act.

II. Education

1. Education in New Zealand is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16, and tuition in state schools is free to New Zealand residents.

2. An elected board of trustees governs each shchool. State schools charge fees to foreign students who are not New Zealand residents, except for exchange students.

3. The largest school in New Zealand, the Correspondence School, provides distance education for students from early childhood upwards.

4. State schools may be co-educational or single-sex, while private schools are often single-sex, and are usually connected to a religion.

5. There are 9 universities in New Zealand. Any citizen or permanent resident may attend university when they are over 20, even if they have passed no exams.

6.There are 23 polytechnics in New Zealand, which provide a range of vocational and academic courses that cover a large number of subjects at various levels up to degree level.

III. EconomyI. Agriculture

1. New Zealand is a rugged country, with little flat, naturally arable land, and its reputation as the world’s largest farm has been the result of hard work.

2. Forestry and Fishing• Forestry and fishing

constitute new natural resource-based industries with exciting potential for further development.

• Forests cover more than a quarter of New Zealand. Forest products are important earners of overseas funds. Australia, Japan and Korea are the largest customers.

• New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone extends 200 nautical miles seaward from the low water mark around New Zealand and its offshore islands.

• It is one of the largest fishing areas in the world. There are a rich variety of sea species in the zone, of which 100 have great commercial values.

3. Energy: Rivers, geothermal steam

contribute to the supply of

electricity; Natural gas; windmills

to produce electricity.

4. Overseas trade: with less than 4 million people, the nation’s well-being depends largely on meeting international standards of quality and competitiveness, and doing business free of trade barriers.