Australia

The Commonwealth of Australia is a colonialist, capitalist, liberal state located in Oceania, near the states Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia (French Colonial Possesion) and the Solomon Islands.

History

Australia was first discovered around 90,000 years ago by Aboriginal Australians who had come from an unknown region in Southern or Southeast Asia. Aboriginal Australians soon settled the whole continent, living as foragers and domesticating wild dogs (dingoes). Around 4,000 years ago, Aboriginals developed agriculture, fish traps and permanent settlements of around 10,000 people.^[1]

Dutch ships made various landings and explored some of Australia throughout the 1600s. (although it is theorised that Portugal, China or an Islamic Caliphate contacted aborigines first). It became a region of the British Empire in 1788 (illegal under Britain's own laws, given the existence of Aboriginals), in order to stop the French Empire from taking it and to make up for land lost in the American Revolution in 1775.

Australia underwent significant amounts of modernisation and urbanisation from the 1950s onwards, and the 1970s saw significant amounts of unrest across the country, leading to a large and developed social democratic welfare state in order to placate the masses. It began to be slowly dismantled over the 1980s to the 2010s, which saw Australians also gain access to the internet at the same time as work became insecure and rent soared.

Analysis

Positives

Australia is a highly developed country, with the world's 14th-largest economy. It has a high-income economy, with the world's tenth-highest per capita income. Having the third-highest human development index and the eighth-highest ranked democracy globally, the country ranks highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom, civil liberties, and political rights, with all its major cities faring well in global comparative livability surveys.

Negatives

Content warning: discussion of racism, sexual assault and genocide ahead

Australia has issues with sexism, despite it having been reduced massively in the past 60 years. There is still a major wage gap that effects women, and sexual assault. Numerous Australian women have experienced domestic violence in their homes. In 2018, it was reported that one in two women have experienced sexual harassment and one in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence. In 2018, it was reported that one in five Australian women have experienced violence by an intimate partner since the age of 15. As a result, intimate partner violence is the largest contributor to ill health, death, and disability for many women. This is larger than any other contributor to ill health for women such as obesity, alcohol, and illicit drugs. However, men are much more likely to be homeless, commit suicide or be arrested by police. These issues are massively compounded in Australia's indigenous communities.^[2]
Australia has issues with racism, especially towards the indigenous population.
In 2010–2012, the estimated life expectancy at birth for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males was 69.1 years, and for females 73.7 years. This was 10.6 years lower than the life expectancy of non-Indigenous males, and 9.5 yearslower than that of non-Indigenous females. A 2006 study by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed that 70% of the Aboriginal population die before the age of 65, compared with 20% of non-Indigenous Australians. Additionally, the suicide rate among Aboriginal Australians is almost three times higher (at 4.2%) than the national average (1.5%).

Poverty is increasing in Australia, some fast facts:
- According to financial analysts, over 46 percent of Australians are living from paycheck to paycheck, with no financial fallback. To put things into perspective, this means that 5.9 million Australians would be in deep trouble if they suddenly lost their jobs. The report also reveals that only 36 percent of Australians would be able to live off their saving for four months before they also find themselves in a tight spot.^[3]
- More than one in eight adults and more than one in six children are living in poverty.^[4]

- The Australian Bureau of Statistics says the total number of homeless Australians increased by 14% to 116,427 between the last census in 2011 and the latest in 2016.^[5]

Major Social Struggles

1788-1899

1900-1959

Rothbury Strike

1960-1999

2000-2019

Anarchist Organizations

Notable Australian People

Celeste Liddle
Chummy Fleming
David Andrade
Dave Andrews
Geoff Mullen
Germaine Greer
Harry Hooton
Iain McIntyre
Jas H. Duke
John Arthur Andrews
John Englart
John Flaus
John Kinsella
John Zube
Joseph Toscano
Juanita Nielsen
Julie McCrossin
Michael Matteson
Monty Miller
Ned Kelly
Peter McGregor
Pi O
Richard Sylvan
Van Badham
Wendy Bacon
Willem Siebenhaar

References

[1] Bruce Pascoe (2014) - Dark Emu

[2] Wikipedia - Gender inequality in Australia

[3] ttps://www.tradersbible.com/news/most-australians-living-paycheck-to-paycheck-survey-shows

[4] ttp://povertyandinequality.acoss.org.au/data/?topic=poverty

[5] ttps://www.businessinsider.com.au/homelessness-is-increasing-in-australia-as-housing-costs-rise-2018-3

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]