Year 10: Military - US/Australia Alliance

1. Who is Steven Smith and what important role does he play for the Australian Government? Steven Smith is defence minister of Australia.
2. What is the Brookings Institution where Mr. Smith delivered his speech? The brooking instituion is in Washington in the US.
3. What role does the Australia/US Alliance play in Australia's 'strategic and security arrangements'? For almost 50 years, through the joint defence facilities in Australia, we have made a significant contribution to US national security by hosting or supporting some of the US's most sensitive and critical strategic capabilities
4. What is important about Australia's global location for this alliance? Australia's global location can assist the US by monitoring near by countries such as China, Indonesia. Australia
5. What contributions has Australia made to this alliance for the last 50 years? Australia has made a significant contribution through joint defence facilities aswell as hosting some of the US's mostsensitive and critical strategic capabilities.
6. What did the minister say about the Australian companies who do business with the US? Australia is an ally that adds value. We are not a consumer of US security who imposes tough choices on the US military and US public policy.
7. Why does the minister point out this information about this company? What does it highlight about the relationship between Australia and the US? It highlights that we value-add, and we do so from a vantage point of respect, not dependency
8. What is the country central to Australia's relationships in the region? China is the country central to Australia's relationships in the region.  
9. What is Australia trying to foster with this country? Australia wants, as the Chinese would say, China to emerge into a 'harmonious environment'
10. Why do you think that this is important to Australia? This is because China is one of the super powers of the world and if Australia has them as an allie they can almost guarantee there safety.

Year 10: Immigration

1. An asylum seeker is a person who has fled their own country and applies to the government of another country for protection as a refugee. According to the United Nations Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (the Refugee Convention), a refugee is a person who is outside their own country and is unable or unwilling to return due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted.

2. They are generally in fear of being persecuted because of their:

• race
• religion
• nationality
• membership of a particular social group
• political opinion.

3. Humanitarian Program, aims to:

• assist people in humanitarian need overseas for whom resettlement in another country is the only available option; and
• comply with Australia's international obligations onshore under the Refugee Convention.

The program has two main parts: off-shore resettlement and on-shore protection.

4. There are about 9.7 million refugees around the world. Asia hosts more than one third of the world's refugees (3.6 million), followed by Africa (3.1 million), Europe (2.2 million) and North America (0.58 million).

Questions:

1. What is the deal between Australia and Malaysia? (What are the numbers of people being 'swapped'?) Send 800 asylum seakers in exchange for 4000 refugees
2. What rights will they have in Malaysia which will allow them to support themselves? The deal states they will be treated with rights and respect, under normal human rights.
3. How does Malaysia normally treat illegal immigrants? They normally treat illegal immigrants terribly by sending them to special "holding" centres if they are found working in illegal factories.
4. Are children being sent to Malaysia? Children will be sent but will be entitled to education and basic human rights
5. What is going to happen to the processing of the 500+ people currently in Australia who have arrived from the 7th of May? Will now be processed in Australia. They will have their claims processed in Australia.
6. What do refugee advocates worry about for the 800 asylum seekers? They are put in harms way in the future, which can't be ruled out.
7. What is the goal of this 'swap' program? The goal of this swap program is to rid Australia of any illegal immigrants(asylum seakers) and to bring in legitimate refugees who deserve a better lifestyle.
8. Do you think that it will work? Why/why not? I dont feel it will work because if Mrs Gillard can't control and guarantee safety of her own people in Malaysia how can she guarantee the safety of 800 asylum seekers.

Year 10: Monday 25/7 Period 4

1. What title does Kevin Rudd have in the Australian Government? Explain what this role entails. Kevin Rudds title is foreign minister which means he deals with foreign affairs and international treaty organisations such as ASEAN.
2. What is Kevin Rudd's concern? Mr Rudd told Mr Pak it was “unacceptable” for North Korea to blame on others the security problems it had caused for the whole region, having recently torpedoed a South Korean naval frigate, shelled civilians’ homes across the border  and defied two UN Security Council resolutions by pursuing an enriched uranium weapons program.
3. What forum was he at to express his concerns? Kevin Rudd was at the ASEAN Regional Forum blaming the US, South Korea and Japan for  provoking the current dangerous instability on the Korean Peninsula.
4. What actions have North Korea performed recently which have Rudd alarmed and the region lacking stability? Rudd was alarmed at North Korea having recently torpedoed a South Korean naval frigate, shelled civilians’ homes across the border  and defied two UN Security Council resolutions by pursuing an enriched uranium weapons program.
5. What is a 'direct threat' to Australia according to Rudd? Kevin Rudd was refering to the long range missile "Taepodong-2" Which could fire a distance of over 15,000 km, a direct threat to Northern Australia.
6. What do you think that Rudd is trying to accomplish diplomatically by calling out his North Korean counterpart publicly? How does this relate to Australia's relationship and role in the region? 
7. How does this relate to Australia's relationship to major allies?

Year 10: Australian Aid

Year 10: Australian Aid - Article Summary

• In the past five years Australia's overseas aid budget has doubled. In the next five years it will double again. By 2015 we will be spending $8 billion a year on helping people overseas. All sides of politics support this, and many other rich countries are doing the same. But no one explains why it is happening. There is an uneasy sense that we might all be deluding ourselves.
• So it seemed like a good idea when, late last year, Kevin Rudd announced a review of Australia's overseas aid program by an impressive panel of experts. Rudd recently released their report, and his response. The report is full of good sense about how to allocate and administer all the extra money. But neither the panel's report nor the government's response provides a really convincing answer to the bigger underlying questions about the purpose of our aid program and the reason it's growing so fast.

• Perhaps they think the answer is obvious. Helping people in need is a good thing to do, and there are always more people who need help. But spending money in ways that makes no difference doesn't help anyone, and there is no virtue in aid that makes donors feel good but doesn't help the needy.

 

• Of course some aid really does help. Most obviously, emergency relief after disasters such as Indonesia's tsunami can save thousands. But this accounts for only 7 per cent of today's program.
• The vast bulk of our aid is supposed to help overcome long-term poverty. It is certainly a big problem; a billion people still live on less than $1.25 a day. But there are two things about poverty we need to understand.
• First, poverty is being overcome. In 1981, 54 per cent of the world's people lived in extreme poverty. By 2005 this had fallen to 25 per cent. In 2015 it will be less than 15 per cent, according to the World Bank.
• Second, it's not being beaten by aid, but by economic growth. Many of the world's most populous nations, left behind two centuries ago by the industrial revolution, are finally catching up. What we used to call ''the developing world'' has in the past few years overtaken ''the developed world'' in economic output. In China, economic growth has lifted half a billion people out of poverty since 1990.
• There is a strange alchemy to economic growth. It requires a remarkable confluence of factors - social, political and technological - to start whole populations moving from semi-subsistence farming to paid work. For decades, well-meaning Westerners have been trying to find out how to catalyse this process in poor countries. Different theories of development have driven successive fashions in aid, each new panacea discredited in its turn. Meanwhile, trillions of dollars and decades of devoted effort have done little.
• Now, as we watch some of the word's poorest countries start to grow of their own accord, we can see more clearly that aid in any form (capital, technology, roads, schools, armies of technical advisers) does not make much difference. The alchemy of growth depends above all on social and political circumstances and institutions. What works in any particular place or time depends on myriad local factors. It has to be home-grown, not engineered from outside.
• To see this we only need to look across Torres Strait. For almost 40 years, Australia's aid program to PNG has been one of the world's largest and most innovative, and yet PNG is no closer to sustainable economic growth or better living standards today than it was at independence in 1975.
• So why, now that so many of the word's largest and poorest countries have found their own ways to grow out of poverty, are countries like Australia redoubling their aid programs? Of course the shrewd ones say that aid is not really about helping other people at all, but about serving Australia's national interests. Both the review panel (rather coyly), and the government (more blatantly) acknowledge there is more to aid than altruism. No prizes for guessing that more aid to Africa and the Caribbean is all about our UN Security Council bid, or that the big program in Afghanistan is aimed primarily at impressing Washington.
• But such flagrant cases aside, there is a lot of fuzzy thinking about how aid really does serve Australia's interests. Take the government's flagship project - building thousands of schools in Indonesia. It started under Howard as a way to combat terrorism by countering Islamic radicalism in Indonesia's education system. But Indonesia found its own way to do that, and it is anyway doubtful that building the schools gives us much influence over what is taught in them.
• Advocates will answer that the program is a good idea anyway. More schools are vital to Indonesia's economic growth. That is certainly true, but Indonesians don't need us to tell them that. They would be building schools anyway. Our money simply displaces theirs, which they then spend on something else - something less important.
• But we like this kind of project because Australians are wedded to an image of Indonesia as a country too poor to help itself. Think again. Indonesia is richer than Australia. Measured in purchasing power parity terms, which avoids exchange rate distortions and gives the truest index of relative economic weight, Indonesia's GDP is now significantly larger than ours. If we really cared about other people's poverty, we should be celebrating this, but instead we ignore it.
• Indeed the rich West as a whole is in deep denial about the way the world is changing as wealth and power flows away from us to the developing world. And I wonder whether this is not, deep down, why we are all suddenly scrambling to give more aid? Any act of charity is, among other things, an assertion of power. Perhaps as power slips away, we feel more need to assert it.

Question 2
The author of this article obviously believes that the majority of our money spent in overseas aid is a waste. Although he acknowledges that there are parts of our aid program that are very beneficial to our overseas friends, he uses the examples of minimising poverty and emergency aid. He then progresses his arguement to say that this accounts for less than 10 percent of our program now. He explains that the bulk of our overseas aids funds are used to help reduce poverty by specifically building schools etc. He then further develops his point by saing that these countries would already be thinking about this, so the money we give them is a waste. He believes that they are already thinking about making schools, which means the money we "waste" on them will be spent on less important things. He then concludes that Australia should be more assertive in regards to this issue.

Question 3

So why, now that so many of the word's largest and poorest countries have found their own ways to grow out of poverty, are countries like Australia redoubling their aid programs? Of course the shrewd ones say that aid is not really about helping other people at all, but about serving Australia's national interests. Both the review panel (rather coyly), and the government (more blatantly) acknowledge there is more to aid than altruism. No prizes for guessing that more aid to Africa and the Caribbean is all about our UN Security Council bid, or that the big program in Afghanistan is aimed primarily at impressing Washington.

Exam Prep - Urban Sprawl

1) This is an example of Urban Sprawl because its the expansion of borders and a new suburb near Penrith as it isn't the renovation/renewal of a existing suburb/city but a enlargement of living space for people to become residents of.

2) I think the construction of the town Jordan Springs is actually has a negative effect on the surrounding community for a number of reasons. For example, some people, especially some Aborigine Tribes have complained that their heritage land is being stripped from them forcefully and impacting on their own living space that they have held for thousands of years. Other people have complained because it is depleting the natural beauty of the original woodland and lakes with the building of a town to create a funner 'community' aswell as more jobs and living space. There would be long term advantages in maintaining and preserving the Cumberland Plain Woodland that is the main focal opinion of many people. The creation of Jordan Springs also destroys habitats of animals, this point has probably not even been considered by the government and the removal of these habitats may cause a sudden drop in the population of certain species. For Sydney, the only advantage is that it would create more living space for people. The main disadvantage is the non-conservation of the woodland because if you kept the trees rather than remove them, you would allow CO2 levels to stay lower, rather than increase as there are less trees and more emission creating buildings and vehicles. For Australia, Jordan Springs can also be used as a center for asylum seekers or new (legal) residents rather than having to create more houses in already populated areas. There are many disadvantages such as the rise in pollution levels which Australia doesn't need. Also there is the serious possibility of nobody wanting to move in to Jordan Springs with only temporary jobs in construction and no definite jobs in any other service.

9.2 Questions Page 213

 

1) Urban Sprawl is the spreading outwards of a city and its suburbs to its outskirts to low-density, auto-dependent development on rural land, with associated design features that encourage car dependency.

2) Urban Consolidation is the increase of dwelling densities within established areas over and above that which is already there through infill or redevelopment of existing buildings.

3) A highly urbanized country means its has a high population density, a high proportion of the population working in manufacturing and/or professional or service-related industries. High urbanized countries are also centres of business, trade, tourism, entertainment and finance.

4) The statistics that suggest Australia is high urbanized are that it has over 65% of its population in its capital cities, the availability of flat land and coastal locations are encouraging people to move into those capital cities. The United Nations has also successfully estimated that 92% of Australians live in an urbanized area.

5) The fact that each capital cities location are linked to coastal locations, historical values, transport advantages and a favorable climate aswell as availability of flat ground for building development

6) Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. This is related to urban sprawl as the larger a population is, the more suburbs are created in a city to expand outwards to fit the amount of people in comfortably. The problem with this is the cost of infrastructure and supplies needed to build these new areas and the removal

of nature.

7) Australian cities have very low population density in comparison to other cities such as Mumbai and Cairo. There has been a recent shift in Australians wanting to live in small houses and apartments rather than in detached houses. Unlike other countries, Australia's available land to be expanded upon, its quite large compared to London or Paris.

8) Urban consolidation is able to provide a new suburb with the latest technology and equipment needed to allow its population to live comfortably aswell as not having to expand so quickly outwards. The main factor of urban consolidation over urban sprawl is that it allows the population to use features such as public transport, electricity and water supplies can be used more intensely

9) Urban planners have managed to innovate new designs for apartments and new estates to manage the problem of population growth in cities. They have been able to create apartments and estates that are smaller but more comfortable for the person/people living inside.

10A) Melbourne
B) It is measured in the number of people living per square kilometre
C) Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Wollongong, Perth, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, Gosford and Brisbane
D) 80% of Australia's largest 10 cities have more than 1000 people living in a square kilometre

11) Some of the opinions of the detached housing residents would be that the construction of apartments takes too long or that its prices make a suburbs total value decrease. The impacts would be that current residents would be disturbed be construction workers, sound(s) and possible obstructions and time delays on roads and transport.

12) The advantages of living in a detached estate would be that you can choose more specifically where you want to live, you can control the tidiness of your own home, you need to pay less maintenance and service fees, you can use your house as a social area without having to worry so much about other residents in the nearby area, and prices don't change for rent. Disadvantages are the interest on mortgages, cost of the entire area and renovation and the availability of land space and the cost of the land itself

9.1 Questions

9.1 Questions

1. What is meant by the term "Urban Sprawl"? The uncontrollable spread of urban development into neighbouring regions.
 2.What is meant by the term "Urban Consolidation"? Land within an existing city's boundary is developed with high-rise apartments complexes, townhouses and villa developments.
3.What is meant by a highly urbanised country? Where the majority of the population lives in urban areas.

4. List three statistics that suggest Australia is a higly urbanised country?  Has a high population density, not tolerable conditions apart from urban areas and most employment is in the major centres.
5.What factors have influenced the location of Australia's capital cities? A high population density, a high proportion of the population working in manufacturing and/or professional or service related industries and they are centres of business, trade, tourism, entertainment and finance.

6.What is popultion density and how is it related to urban sprawl? The number of people living per unit of an area and it is related to urban sprawl as it shows how many people live in each region.

7.How do Australian cities compare to other cities in the world in terms of their population density?  They have very small population density compared to many other cities around the world such as Cairo or Paris.
8.Describe the advantage, in terms of the provision of infrastructure, urban consolidation has over urban sprawl? It shows that you can have a dense population at a such a small area as in high-rise apartments. More facilities can be available but using less space.

9.How have urban planners responderd to the issue of urban sprawl in Australia? Urban planners have had to be innovative in their design of apartments and new estates to manage the impacts of population growth in cities

10. a) Which Australian City covers the greatest land area? Melbourne

b) Describe how population density is calculated? It is calculated by dividing population by land area

c) Rank Australia's cities in terms of their population density . Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Wollongong, Perth, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Canberra, Brisbane, Gosford

11. Discuss the opinions the residents in the detatched housing in the foreground might have to the apartment buildings being constructed. What impact will the construction have on their community. The construction will have a large impact as it will greatly oveshadow the smaller houses around the large apartment developments. They will cause about 75% increase in the number of people living in that area. It will also cause shadowing over the smaller houses as the apartment buildings are so large and bulky.
12. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of living in a detached style housing estate compared to apartment living.  A detached house will be better to live in as you have more room to go around and more freedom than compared to an apartment building where you are cramped into a little room with about 100 other people in the same building. It allows there to be more space and make people less stressed as it has more freedom.