Australian Politics and Manus Island - Assignment Example

AUSTRALIAN POLITICS JOURNAL By (Name) Name of Class (Course) Professor (Tutor) Name of Institution (University) City and State The Date 1. Response to political Compass (1 x 200 words). Most people perceive politics as a dirty game. It is however infused into the social lives of the people generally and on personal levels. Good and fair politics would positively influence the daily lives of the people while unfair politics would do the opposite. From the results of the Political Compass, I fell on the less extreme leftist position; putting me in the Socialist category like Robert Mugabe and Mahatma Gandhi. Socialism can be termed as both an ideology and an economic system. In a social system of governing, the ownership of production means is socially owned rather than privately owned (Arnold, 2010). A good government should be able to organise economic activities through planning as opposed to market forces and its most important purpose of production should be the satisfaction of the needs of its people as opposed to accumulating profit. The question of whether charity is better than social security as a way to help the genuinely disadvantaged may not have a clear answer since the two are both very important but different ways of helping the genuinely disadvantaged. When it comes to charity, well-being and mutuality is the rule of the society where human beings learn to live together in goodwill and support each other; it is more about the expression of love and generosity than the end result (Walls, 2016). On the other hand, social security is about ensuring that everyone has shelter, drinking water, food to eat and basic healthcare among other needs. Social security is also a social good that creates a productive and stable society. Charity and social security serve two distinct but related purposes. They are not competitive but mutually reinforcing in that they work hand in hand and are both very important. 2. Chapter Review (1 x 400 words). In most cases, when a new government is elected, there are usually hopes for fresh ethical responsibilities which are then followed by the suspicions of unaccountable and irresponsible power. Accountability tends to intrude when responsibility wavers which in turn threatens the trust that existed initially. In his book, 'Terms of Trust: Arguments over Ethics in Australian Government', John Uhr states that when the forces of accountability are infringed to a great extent, the conducive atmosphere for a hale and hearty sense of personal ethical responsibility and trust that initially existed is held at bay and is replaced by an atmosphere full of suspicion and distrust, (2005). Such an atmosphere is very conducive for increased scandals and abuse which may lead to governments being voted out of power to be replaced by the new ones that campaign with the promise to clean up the ongoing wrongs. In the current ever changing world, there are demands for new ways of working for governments and these calls for the announcement of mission statements of their public service. These guide them through their aims, values and roles in the public service sector and would be a vital step in the renewal of a new public service culture. Ethical and integrity measures in governments should not be seen as distinct and separate activities but rather as integral parts of government systems. This in turn creates a clear understanding of the vital consistency between centralised and strict compliance-based ethics management frameworks. A good ethical government enforces a public sector atmosphere that encourages high standards of behaviour with each function being regarded as an important and separate building block but with their particular entities being mutually reinforcing and complementary (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2000). These elements have to interrelate in order to come up with the essential synergy to become an integrated and coherent infrastructure. The elements of such an infrastructure are categorized according to their purpose and these include: Guidance, which is provided by a strong commitment from the government, management through coordination and control through a legal framework that enables independent investigation and prosecution. John Uhr's book has a coherent depiction of the fierce cycle of contemporary politics. The title, Terms of Trust, stands for the standards of integrity, reliability or more broadly morality that citizens use to judge the government by. Governments have lately become more proactive in their attempt to manipulate and define these standards and this book was as a result of this fact. 3. Current Affairs Discussion (1 x 400 words) Manus Island is one of Australia's offshore immigration facilities which is located in Papua New Guinea which is operated by Broadspectrum on behalf of the Australian Government (The Guardian, 2017). People without Australian Visas that came to the country by boat were transferred to these facilities to stay while their requests for asylum were processed. Recently, Victoria's Supreme Court approved a compensation deal of $70 million from the Australian Government to settle the 1400 current and former detainees in the Island for being illegally detained and negligence in the housing and protection from the Australian government between 2012 and 2016 as the detention centre is set to close in the next month. According to ABC News Australia, the deal is the biggest human rights settlement in the legal history of Australia, (2017). There were complains that the Commonwealth did not take good care of the detainees who were held in bad conditions that were below Australian standards. According to News.com Australia, some of the detainees objected in court stating the compensation is not enough and the settlement did not resolve the current plight of those that remain in the Island and those that claimed for refugee status were still to be determined, (2017). On the other hand according to the Guardian, when the news emerged in mid this year, the immigration minister stated that the decision by the government to settle the immigrants in the detention centre was prudent and further averted the long and expensive trial of Slater and Gordon saying that theirs was an "ambulance-chasing law firm", (2017). The former prime minister of Australia, Tony Abbott termed the decision to compensate as a windfall for immigrants who took advantage of the generosity of the nation. According to him, the case should have not gone to court let alone the settlement. In sentiments shared by a good number of Australian citizens, Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun also states that the Manus Island payout is very wrong and the 70 million Dollars should not be handed out to the illegal migrants, (2017). The Labour Law firm, Slater and Gordon that were representing the immigrants argued that the compensation was for detaining the immigrants illegally and under poor conditions. This raises the question of whether the immigrants were asked to come to Australia, smuggle themselves by boat. They were even offered $20,000 to go back home but refused while other immigrants took the offer and went back to their homes with no problems. These sentiments clearly show that the payment should have been agreed on as a form of charity but not compensation. 4. Exercise in Democratic Participation (1 x 400 words total) I chose to write a letter to the editor of the Guardian Newspaper about the $70 million compensation to the immigrants that were detained in Manus Island. Writing letters to newspaper editors are a powerful way to exercise democratic rights as it helps shape the opinion of the public. Through writing these letters, I can freely share my opinions and ideas to the public since these are read by government officials, local activists, community members and legislators. By writing a letter that appeals to both logic and emotion, the letter can effectively appeal to the audience and pass the intended message across. In as much as this letter may not induce much change in the current situation of compensation to immigrants. My opinion which I believe echoes the opinions of most Australians may influence the involved parties to avoid making the same mistakes in future. I felt like this was the most ideal way to contribute to my country, I believed I had something important to say and wanted to share my views and thoughts with as many readers as possible. It is a way of making use of my right to freedom of expression. The fact that the Australian government was called upon to compensate people that brought themselves to the country without any invitation only with the agenda of seeking asylum does not go well with many of the taxpaying citizens. The events that led to the killing of one detainee could not be said to have been solely the responsibility of PNG since they brought about the tensions with their protests. These immigrants have never been the responsibility of the Australian Government and as such what they really needed was help and charity but not compensation of which some are not thankful for and are demanding for more. As an Australian citizen, this did not sit well with me. However, the fact that the immigration minister stated that the settlement was not an admission of liability in any regard and the denial of the claims in the proceedings by the commonwealth was in order. The letter written to the editor of the Guardian Newspaper was my own opinion and it represents my honest views. I believe the letters written to the editor in either local or regional newspapers would reach the stakeholders and many other community members if published and my opinion as an Australian Citizen would be heard and maybe considered in if a similar case occurs in the future. 5. Overall General Discussion (at least 100 words) When it comes to Australian politics, despite the fact that many costly mistakes have been made, there is also much to celebrate. There is even more to be encouraged among the future generations. Australia has indeed been deeply blessed but sometimes the normal citizen feels powerless to act and have lost faith in the national institutions. Therefore, because of this, citizens have to be satisfied by the culture of partisan recrimination that is the Australian politics today. The discussions about the future have become marginal and the country is now getting divided on political basis. Reference List ABC News, 2017. Manus Island detainees' $70m compensation settlement approved. [Online]. Available at: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-06/manus-island- detainees-settlement-with-commonwealth/8876934 [Accessed 09 Sept 2017]. Arnold, S., 2010. Internet Encyclopaedia of philosophy: Socialism. [Online]. Available at: http://www.iep.utm.edu/socialis/ [Accessed 09 Sept 2017]. Bolt, A., 2017. Manus Island payout is so wrong. [Online] Available at: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/andrew-bolt/andrew-bolt-manus-island- payout-is-so-wrong/news-story/0a95ac439f4570d3dcc55675a5820f1e [Accessed 09 Sept 2017]. News.com Australia, 2017. Manus Island compensation: Judge approves $70m for 1400 detainees. [Online] Available at: http://www.news.com.au/national/manus-island- compensation-judge-approves-70m-for-1400-detainees/news- story/1c3724b5090da5937d49c9f28ea88c34 [Accessed 09 Sept 2017]. ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT, 2000. Trust in Government Ethics Measures in OECD Countries. [Online]. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/gov/ethics/48994450.pdf [Accessed 09 Sept 2017]. The Guardian, 2017. Manus Island: judge approves $70m compensation for detainees. [Online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/australia- news/2017/sep/06/judge-approves-70m-compensation-for-manus-island-detainees [Accessed 09 Sept 2017]. Uhr, J., 2005. Terms of Trust: Arguments over ethics in Australian Government. UNSW Press, Sydney. Walls, M., 2016. Power and Politics: A reflection on political settlement [Online]. Available at: https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/dpublog/2016/04/11/power-and-politics-a-reflection-on- political-settlement/ [Accessed 09 Sept 2017]. Read More